Five most controversial moments for Mithika Linturi
Soft-spoken Meru Senator Mithika Linturi has had a season to forget. The senator has been dogged by one controversy after another, culminating in Wednesday’s public bust-up with his estranged wife, Marianne Jebet Kitany.
Here are the five foremost controversies that have lately dogged the senator:
1. Marital affair – In August 2012, a woman sued the lawmaker for abandoning her and their three-year-old son. She claimed they were married in May, 2008 under Meru customary law and she gave birth to the son in 2010. She said Linturi was a good ‘sponsor’ until sometime in 2011 when he turned ‘cruel, abusive, irresponsible and negligent’.
2. Degree scandal – In November last year, the University of Nairobi deregistered his law degree which he earned in 2014, after it was discovered the politician presented fake papers when enrolling for the course.
The case put the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on the spot for clearing him to contest the elections despite being furnished with misgivings regarding his certificates.
Another petitioner against Linturi claimed he passes himself off as a Bachelor of Commerce graduate from the University of Nairobi yet in a sworn affidavit an investigator with the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) stated Linturi never registered as a student for the course and that he was not among those who graduated in 2001.
3. House help’s mysterious death – Last month, Senator Linturi’s house help was reported to have died under mysterious circumstances. Edith Kinanu is believed to have died on October 5, 2018 but one Wilson Mwiti, who introduced himself as his wife, told the Sunday Nation he was puzzled the family refused to conduct a postmortem that could have cleared any ‘disturbing questions’ surrounding her death.
Mwiti also claimed his wife was hurriedly buried a week after she died.
4. More marital problems – At the height of the Senator’s woes is his marital problems. Recently, his wife Marianne Kitany obtained restraining orders against him.
A senior resident magistrate at Milimani Commercial Court issued exclusive occupation of the couple’s shared residence to Kitany. This ruling followed Kitany’s application suggesting the politician was abusive and threatened to kill her.
5. Residence stand-off – In December 2018, Kitany accused Linturi of storming the Runda residence and destroying property in the process. On the day, the couple had a stand-off as Linturi received orders to access the residence leaving a trail of destruction in the process.