A magistrate court has dismissed a divorce case filed by Aldai Member of Parliament Maryanne Keitany against the newly nominated Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi.
Keitany moved to court seeking protection after Linturi, the then Meru Senator threw her out of their house.
Milimani chief magistrate Heston Nyaga ruled that Kitany failed to prove that she was legally married to Linturi.
Nyaga ruled that the doctrine of common law marriage no longer applies in Kenya and that customary law marriage is not a one-event or single-ceremony matter.
The court said that even among Kitany’s witnesses, there was no consensus on whether the ceremony on 16th April 2016 , on its own, created a marriage.
“The doctrine of common law marriage no longer applies in Kenya. A customary law marriage is not a one-event or single ceremony matter,” the court ruled.
The Marriage Act 2014 requires parties to register a customary marriage.
The magistrate noted that Linturi was in a monogamous marriage with Mercy Kaimenyi and therefore could not hold any other form of marriage including polygamy.
“Mithika Linturi could not contract a Nandi customary marriage or any other form of marital union with Maryanne Kitany. The customary law union alluded to by Maryanne Kitany would not suffice as a marriage under the laws of Kenya,” it stated.
Linturi argued that the sole purpose of the divorce case was to harass him so as to obtain orders relating to property ownership.
