Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka has agreed to take responsibility for his unborn child and an out of court settlement with a woman who sued him for upkeep.
Lusaka has however refused to accede to the woman’s demand that he buys her a house or pays her a lump sum of Sh25 million.
Through lawyer Peter Wanyama, Lusaka told Justice Anthony Mrima that he has already agreed to support the woman during her pregnancy and took responsibility for the unborn child as they await the birth of their child in seven months’ time.
“He has been engaging the lady to address her concerns and once the baby is born, he will deal with the other issues that will arise. They have agreed for the speaker to provide pre-birth maintenance, give her accommodation and other expenses relating to prenatal care,” said Wanyama.
According to Wanyama, the speaker had invited the woman after she sued him two weeks ago for abandoning her after she became pregnant and allowed them time to discuss in private before they agreed on the out of court settlement.
READ MORE
Gachagua in fresh push to keep judges out of impeachment case
Did Ruto and Senate ignore IEBC on Gachagua's impeachment?
Wanyama asked the court to give them 30 days to finalize the negotiations but the woman’s lawyer Danstan Omari insisted that he be given seven days to make a final agreement with the lady.
Omari told the judge that the question at hand was how to deal with the pregnancy so that the woman does not fall into depression and lose her baby which does not require the 30 days to settle.
“The question of paternity is already settled as we have a father who has admitted that he is responsible for the unborn child. What the mother needs is care to be able to carry the pregnancy,” said Omari.
Wanyama however stated that the real dispute is not for Lusaka to take care of the lady during her pregnancy but her demands that the speaker buys her a house or pay her the Sh25 million within a week.
He said that the speaker gave her the option of providing accommodation and pay for the prenatal care as they wait for her to deliver and have the dispute transferred to the children’s court if they would have not agreed on a settlement.
“The speaker is not disputing being the father of the unborn child. He has agreed to provide her with the support she wants during the pregnancy but she is insisting on being bought for a house which is not possible,” said Wanyama.
The woman identified as INM sued the speaker two weeks ago for allegedly impregnating and abandoning her.
She swore in her affidavit that she had been having an intimate relationship with Lusaka since 2018 and that she met the speaker at his Nairobi home on April 1 where he insisted that they have unprotected sex and soon after discovered that she was pregnant.
“Ever since I broke the good news to the speaker that we were going to have a child as a symbol of our love and care for each other, at least for the three years duration we have been intimate, I have faced negativity, rudeness, and disregard from him,” she swore.
She stated that as a result of the rejection, she has experienced pregnancy complications which she cannot afford to treat because she is jobless.
Her lawyer, Omari, argued that the two had a jolly intimate affair punctuated with several instances of unprotected carnal knowledge since 2018 until two months ago when they disagreed after she disclosed that she was expectant.
According to Omari, the cause of disagreement was Lusaka’s insistence that the woman terminates the pregnancy but she declined on account that she had not been intimate with any other man apart from the speaker.
He asked the court to order the speaker to pay the Sh25 million lump sum amount for the woman’s upkeep or in the alternative pay a monthly maintenance of Sh200,000 to cater for her pre-natal expenditure.
Justice Mrima gave Lusaka and the woman 21 days to settle the matter out of court and report the progress on July 28 when the case will be mentioned.
