This archive report was first published on 30 June 2020.
On June 30, 2020, a dramatic scene unfolded at the Milimani law courts in Nairobi as a 30-year-old woman, Mary Kwamboka Onyancha, claimed she was barred from filing a suit against Chief Justice David Maraga for child upkeep.
However, in a swift rejoinder, Justice Maraga's lawyers dismissed her suit as part of a smear campaign against the CJ by the deep state.
Onyancha alleged that Justice Maraga fathered her child, born on April 21, 2014, and is demanding Sh91,600 monthly upkeep from him.
She claimed that she got into an intimate relationship with Maraga in 2013 and conceived the same year, but the CJ later disowned the child.
“Upon the birth of the minor, the plaintiff requested the defendant for child upkeep but he adamantly refused and denied the paternity of the minor,” Onyancha stated in her documents.
Maraga's lawyers, however, disputed Onyancha's claims, saying that the name of the mother does not exist in the registrar of births' records.
They also accused Onyancha of being part of a smear campaign against the CJ, who has been under intense pressure to resign or leave office before the end of his term on January 12, 2021.
Maraga's lead lawyer, Danstan Omari, said, “the woman is being used by those pushing Maraga out of office”.
Omari also claimed that Onyancha failed to pay the mandatory filing fees of Sh655 before causing the drama at the court.
