By VINCENT MABATUK

Nakuru, Kenya: A business tycoon based in Nakuru town has denied being the father of a 32-year-old woman who has moved to court claiming the same.

Joseph Muya, who owns chains of hotels in Nakuru town, said he only became aware about Elizabeth Warimi Gitau when she filed the case in court demanding that he be subjected to a DNA test to ascertain whether he was her biological father.

In papers filed before the court through lawyer Wilfred Konosi, Ms Gitau says her mother told her that Muya was her father.

However, in his replying affidavit, the businessman said he had never been in any union with her mother and cannot be Wairimu’s father.  He accused the woman of scheming to benefit from his wealth illegally.

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Financial support

But Warimi told the court that she had on several occasions met with Muya who had confirmed to her that he was her father.  She added that she had enjoyed a cordial relationship with him, a claim the businessman vehemently denied.

“There is nowhere I admitted to her that I was her father and any financial support in the past was on humanitarian grounds and not fatherly obligations as alleged,” he stated. The mother of three urged the High Court to compel the businessman to be subjected to a DNA test.

 The woman wants Muya to recognise her as his daughter, saying refusing her had subjected her to mental anguish, dejection, ridicule and hatred.

Through his lawyer Kipkoech Ngetich, Muya said he gave her the money for school fees more than a decade ago after he was approached by people who knew the woman while she was still a student and had decided to assist like any other ordinary person.

“I never had a relationship with her mother before or after January 5, 1982, when she was born and therefore I cannot be her father. For her to demand my DNA sample is to infringe on my Constitutional rights as a Kenyan citizen,” Muya said.

The businessman is the Lake Nakuru National Park Management Committee Chairman and proprietor of the Lake Nakuru Lodge and Summit Hotel. The case will be heard on May 6 before Justice Hellen Omondi.