It seems Karma is determined to make former National Assembly speaker (he refused to campaign for ODM leader Raila Odinga in 2013 elections) Kenneth Otiato Marende (whom ODM invested a lot in sometime after the tumultuous 2007 post election violence and chose as a speaker but who spent the 5 years weakening ODM’s and former PM Raila Odinga in parliament) pay for his former sins.
Marende became Kibaki’s and PNU’s “safe pair of hands” in parliament but that is for another day.
Since losing the speaker’s position (despite him not appearing on any of CORD’s campaign for 2013) which he thought would automatically come his way (he failed to realize Jubilee had its plans too) Marende has been in one court after another fighting neglect charges from several (two) women who want him to take care of his ‘on duty’ children.
Early this month, a Rongai woman, Jennifer Nkowua, hurled Otiato in a children’s court demanding child upkeep money for their child whom Marende had enrolled in an international school. The judge had earlier told Marende to pay Ksh 450,000 for the upkeep.
The woman, whom Otiato had crossed over from the lowly Rongai to Nairobi’s posh Lavington suburb, had told the court that Otiato appears to be ‘reneging’ on his parental duties.
Now, another woman has come out.
Speaking to The Star, Rachel Olubero wants Marende to honour a court order issued in 2011 ordering him to pay school fees and other utility bills for a girl he sired with her 10 years ago. The woman worries her daughter risks dropping out of Rusinga School where the ‘father’ – Marende – had enrolled her.
In January, Rusinga school sent a terse letter to the former speaker detailing the child arrears.
“Four weeks into the term you have not paid anything towards your school fees account. We are kindly requesting that you settle the above amount of Sh211,850 failure to which your child will be required to stay away from school effective Thursday January 30 until the account is settled in full,” reads the letter from the school.
“This is to remind you that your school fees account is still outstanding despite many reminders. We are kindly requesting that you settle the amount immediately,” reads another letter from the school.
The child’s birth certificate indicates she was born on october 19, 2003 at Nairobi Hospital. Her father’s name is entered as Kenneth Otiato Marende.
Plubero, a reproductive health consultant, said she comes from Ebusakami in Maseno and is in her 30s.
She said she met Marende in Mombasa in 2001 during the Bunyore Welfare Association meeting just after graduating from nursing school. Olubero said by then, Marende had separated with his wife Lavender. She died in 2005.
She said they got married in 2002 under the Bunyore customary law and the child was named after Marende’s sister. “We married in 2002 under the Bunyore customary law. However, we only lived together for five months after he became Speaker in 2008.”