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Beverle Lax accuses Chief Justice Willy Mutunga of not paying her maintenance fee

City News

A case filed by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga’s ex-wife, Prof Beverle Michele Lax, demanding payment of Sh150,000 in maintenance as directed by a divorce court may not have been concluded despite hearing being set for May 16 last year, The Nairobian can exclusively reveal.

In his ruling of July 26, 2012, Justice GBM Kariuki asked the CJ to pay the money for a period of six months from the date of judgement, or until law suits related to division of matrimonial property were heard and determined.

The last time the case was heard, Prof Lax confirmed that the CJ had indeed been remitting the money, which included her utility bills, cable television, membership to Parklands Club, car and domestic insurance, as well as medical cover. She, however, said he had stopped payment in February 2013, causing her “irreparable loss.”

When contacted, Prof Lax said:“It is a matter of fact that the issue has not been concluded. I have much more to say on the issue.”

A perusal of the court’s online records also suggest that rulings on all three matters affecting Kenya’s top jurist and head of one of the arms of government, are yet to be made, painting a picture of a judiciary battling to speed up justice amid staff shortage, a slashed budget and a backlog of cases.

The case also reflects the torturous path a mwananchi seeking divorce must navigate through the corridors of justice. The 2012 divorce ended a marriage which Justice Mutunga, in an email to his ex, had described as ‘legal fiction for practical purposes,’ a marriage that had broken down so irretrievably that the couple communicated via email.

“In some jurisdictions, we would now be divorced by consent,” the CJ said in one of the emails.

In December 2009, Dr Mutunga filed a divorce case against Prof Lax, whom he married in July 2000, accusing her of cruelty. In turn, she accused him of denying her conjugal rights. Like most divorce cases, shocking revelations about dishonesty, cruelty, hot temper, money, sex and violence featured prominently.

Children with first wife

However, a keen examination of testimonies and email exchanges between the CJ and Prof Lax reveals that Dr Mutunga’s decision to offer financial support to children from his previous marriages and his wife’s refusal to seek employment and help with the bills could be what fuelled ill will and shook the foundation of the marriage.

The bile played out even in court, with Justice GBM Kariuki observing: “I watched both the petitioner and respondent testifying before me. I formed the vivid impression that the respondent was a control freak, and overbearing, and violent in her language. I saw her flash to the petitioner her middle finger in court although she denied it.”

According to Prof Lax’s testimony, she accused the CJ of being a “pathological liar” who “kept an open relationship with his former wife” and “concealed the existence of his relationship with women whom he had sired children with.” Mutunga has been married twice before and has two children with his first wife and one child each with two other women.

“I was miffed by the fact that Dr Mutunga was renting a flat for the ex-wife in Nairobi, while all along, I thought that the ex-wife lived in Kitui as this is what he had led me to believe,” reads Prof Lax’s testimony, which also alluded to US$6,000 (Sh534,000) that the CJ sent the mother of his son.

Apparently, Mutunga’s wife was so temperamental that after Mutunga moved out after filing for divorce, she let out her anger at the residence of the then US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, by shouting “my husband’s girlfriend” at a woman she suspected of having an affair with the CJ. The two were separated at the time.

The woman in question sent the CJ an email saying she was surprised by “such uncouth and ridiculous behaviour by a supposedly intelligent, educated and mature woman” and that she would shame and embarrass the prof if she ever addressed her in that manner again. She also implored Dr Mutunga to “please sort your issues and leave me and other innocent parties out of your nonsense.”

Prof Lax further claimed the CJ harassed her. She mentioned one incident when he turned off the lights in the kitchen while he sat watching soccer on TV with the chandelier lights on, and also referred to an incident in which she alleged Dr Mutunga hit her in the mouth when the issue of the CJ’s first family came up as they drove on Mombasa Road to a furniture shop.

She further alleged that the CJ did not tell her that in October 1998, he would be travelling to Canada, yet the trip was pre-planned. She alleged that he hid his relationship with an unnamed woman to whom she claimed he sent funds.

Mutunga’s lawyer, Chacha Odera, however said no evidence had been given to prove payments for illicit or clandestine purposes or his client’s infidelity.

In his response, Dr Mutunga told the court that his ex-wife had ungoverned temper, saying that during the course of their marriage, she had physically and verbally assaulted him on various occasions.

He said she falsely accused him of “wanting her dead” by pulling off her oxygen mask while she was in hospital in an attempt to kill her, despite the fact that it was him who helped her through her recovery for over six weeks, and being at her bedside for the five days she was admitted in hospital.

The CJ also accused her of tearing the only copy he had of his masters degree thesis in anger and using the words ‘bitch’, ‘parasites’, and the ‘f-u word’ on his first wife and children.

“I told the respondent that if my children are parasites because they depend on me, then she is also a parasite,” the CJ testified.

What apparently galled the CJ was that while she questioned his expenditure, she was not making any contributions to the family and had chosen to remain jobless despite being highly educated.

“I believe you need to start looking for a job. I find it laughable that while I am 10 years older than you and as qualified as you are, I am still working 24/7 and all you can say is that you have made my home comfortable, cooked for me and (made) my life worth living. This is a rationalisation for indolence and early retirement,” the CJ scoffed in an email.

But Prof Lax told the court that she had not found a job ‘she liked’ and that she had a liver condition which gave her chronic fatigue, causing some people to refer to her as ‘lazy.’

In her plaint, the professor had asked for maintenance amounting to Sh400,000 a month. But Justice Kariuki, in his judgment, noted that Prof Lax had US$155,000 (Sh13.795 million) family inheritance ‘sitting’ in her private US account, that she is well educated and should be able to find employment, and that the CJ only had four years to retire and there was no evidence to show he had ‘tucked away money for a rainy day.’

Interviewed on TV

“The quantum of maintenance must make sense. It must be within the ability of the spouse paying it. It must not enrich the spouse to whom it is paid, or oppress the spouse paying it. Where the spouse is capable of engaging in gainful employment but refuses to work, such conduct may be oppressive to the other spouse,” Justice Kariuki ruled when he awarded her Sh150,000 as monthly maintenance.

“At her age, and as a professor of linguistics who has taught in universities, it is realistic to expect her to engage in teaching or consultancy work and to earn,” he added.

But what might intrigue readers is the judge’s assertion that had it been in her power, Prof Lax would have sabotaged Dr Mutunga’s chances of being appointed CJ.

This follows revelations that while Dr Mutunga was being interviewed on TV for the CJ’s job, Prof Lax sent him “impolite” messages, telling him, among other things, to collect his trash (bookcase) from her house.

 

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