Supreme Court says marriage disputes are a family affair

The Supreme Court has ruled that it has no jurisdiction to hear matrimonial disputes as such cases are a family affair.

This came after a British couple living in Kenya sought the court’s intervention in regards to alimony paid to spouses following divorce.

Charles Michael Angus Walker Munro and Pamela Ann Walker Munro were married 21 years ago and moved to Kenya in 2007.

Two years later, they got divorced on grounds that the man had ‘deserted’ their marriage, claims that he denied. The couple had no children.

According to him, Pamela’s extravagant lifestyle is what strained their union and the Ksh. 250,000 monthly alimony sought was enough proof.

The case had earlier been heard at the High Court and a ruling made that Charles pay his ex-wife £600 (Ksh. 82,739) for one and a half years.

This figure was later pushed to £1,000 (Ksh. 137,898) after the woman moved to the Appeal Court.

Also at the centre of their dispute was a home allegedly owned by Pamela and estimated to be worth worth £250,000 (Ksh. 34 million).

Charles’ legal team argued that the ex-wife was not as destitute as she wanted the court to believe as she apparently gets Ksh. 100,000 monthly rent from the house.

Recently in a similar case, the High Court dealt a blow to Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua after it dismissed his application to divide property worth millions of shillings with his ex-wife Josephine Thitu.

The Governor lost claim to his matrimonial home and other expansive properties in Makueni, Machakos and Kitui.

Mr. Mutua and his ex-wife had been married for 15 years but parted ways over “irreconcilable’ differences.