Economy

Linturi property frozen in wife row

lintu

Security guards outside the disputed home. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU

The High Court has stopped the transfer and sale of property jointly owned by Meru Senator Mithika Linturi and his estranged wife Maryanne Kitany, pending determination of a case she has filed over sharing multi-million shilling assets.

Justice John Onyiego put freeze orders on their palatial Runda house which the court has allowed Ms Kitany to inhabit amid a push by Mr Linturi to evict her.

Mr Linturi has been stopped from transferring six prime plots located in Kajiado and dealing in five bank accounts at Standard Chartered #ticker:SCBK, Equity #ticker:EQTY, Family, Co-operative #ticker:COOP and Credit banks which have an undisclosed amount of cash.

Ms Kitany, a former powerful Chief of Staff at the Office of Deputy President William Ruto, has filed for divorce and wants their union dissolved over cruelty, neglect, infidelity and desertion claims.

She wants the court to declare that she is entitled to half of the assets held by Mr Linturi as provided for by the Matrimonial Properties Act, 2013, setting the stage for the preservation orders.

Other property are two vehicles; a Range Rover and Toyota Lexus. “The vehicles in question shall continue being used by their current users but without changing ownership,” said Justice Onyiego.

“The OCS Runda is hereby directed to ensure compliance by providing security to the applicant (Kitany) during her return to the premise in Runda and security manning the residence.”

The judge declined to freeze property owned by Mr Linturi’s other companies including Litany Investments Limited, Arc Business Solutions Ltd, Arkchoice Insurance Brokers Limited, Arkchoice Pharmaceuticals, Arkgroup Limited, and Fancy Solutions Limited.

Ms Kitany argues that the properties set out above were acquired and developed by the joint efforts of Linturi and her during the course of their marriage. Mr Kitany told the court that they were married under Meru customary law on April 16, 2016. Before getting married, they had cohabited in her house in Kileleshwa.

She said through lawyer Danstan Omari that they bought the Mae Ridge property in 2015 and the architectural drawings were in her name and that she supervised the construction. She also contributed to the construction of their rural home in Maua, Meru, to allegedly host politicians and other guests.

Mr Linturi has denied marrying her and maintained that he is married to another woman.

He alleged that they met in 2013 and she asked him to accommodate her temporarily in one of his houses and also establish a small office in one of this companies’ offices.

He claimed to have accommodated her on compassion after she lost her job in 2017 at Mr Rutos office and denied introducing her to his family members as a wife.

He said that although she accompanied him to various political rallies he had no marriage relationship with her.

After the good gesture, she allegedly brought her children to the home and chased his away.

Mr Omari claimed that Mr Linturi persuaded her not to look for another job after leaving Mr Rutos office.