A Cabinet Secretary in Uhuru Kenyatta’s government is in the middle of a nasty divorce case. His wife is accusing him of denying her conjugal rights. She is also seeking a monthly upkeep allowance of Sh300,000.
Joe Mucheru, the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Cabinet Secretary has also been accused of mocking his estranged wife’s illness as laziness.
In court papers seen by The Nairobian, Aida Wambui Kamau is seeking to dissolve their marriage, accusing Mucheru of cruelty, willful neglect and desertion, adding that she discovered his golf-loving hubby had another house for which he had paid a full year’s rent.
Wambui accused Mucheru - a born-again Christian- of being secretive, discrete and making decisions without considering her input.
She asked the court to dissolve her marriage and compel Mucheru - who met her through his brother - to pay costs of the proceedings and provide her with reasonable alimony.
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According to the court documents, Wambui filed for divorce on June 29, 2015, claiming her marriage to Mucheru had irretrievably broken down and that their union was a “sham without feelings.”
“Mucheru has denied me my conjugal rights,” she said in her petition filed by Martin Tebino of Ahmednasir, Abdikadir and Company Advocates.
According to her affidavit, the two tied the knot in November 2005 under Kikuyu Customary law. They then mutually agreed that Wambui would be a stay-at-home wife due to Mucheru’s busy work schedule. Wambui said that during that period, Mucheru gave her Sh300,000 a month for maintenance and care.
The two lived together on State House Crescent in Nairobi, before moving to Kitisuru, then Riverside Drive and more recently, to Lavington, Nairobi. She said that Mucheru stopped making the monthly maintenance payments in June 2015.
“Due to irreconcilable differences that culminated in the filing of the instant petition, Mucheru moved out of the matrimonial home on 4th July 2015, leaving me to fend for myself with no dependent source of income,” she said in her affidavit.
At the time of filing, Mucheru was the Google Sub-Saharan Africa ambassador as well as Energy Access and Investments Regional Lead-Africa.
“Mucheru has failed to support me emotionally, even with the knowledge that I suffer from fibromyalgia, a neurological condition, and instead insults and abuses me, calling it laziness,” she said.
Wambui also accused Mucheru of causing confrontations which she said had made her live in fear. She further claims that Mucheru accused her of being materialistic, adding that he is a man of double personality. “He acts so well with other people, but reverts to cruelty and abuse when with me,” says Wambui in her petition.
Regarding being deserted, Wambui claimed she found out that Mucheru had secretly rented a house and paid a whole year’s rent, and that he had shown intentions of moving out of their matrimonial home, which he eventually did after the petition was filed.
Separately in a certificate of urgency that was filed on August 12, 2015, Wambui said that after Mucheru moved out, she discovered that the tenancy agreement of the Lavington house was to expire on September 15, 2015. Consequently, a notice was given to her by the landlord. She would have been rendered homeless with no residence. Before the eviction however, the two parties filed a consent agreement in which Mucheru agreed to pay Sh350,000 monthly as alimony, and was to pay a six-month advance installment in the sum of Sh2.1 million. The consent was signed by both parties’ lawyers on September 11, 2015.
At the end of the six-month period, Mucheru delayed sending the money by a day and lawyer Martin Tebino wrote to Musyoka Mogaka and Company Advocates claiming the money as recorded in consent orders.
“Mucheru’s callous reluctance to abide by the Consent Orders will leave us no alternative but to cite him for contempt of court and in effect, negate all the progress we have made in these matters,” wrote Tebino.
However, on March 21 last year, Wambui, through her lawyer, said she was willing to relocate to their matrimonial home in the best interest of the marriage.
According to the letter, she made the decision after personal reflection and consultations with family and friends.
Mucheru’s lawyers responded on April 26 last year saying, “Let the parties engage themselves.”
