C.K V B.M[2012]eKLR
C.K ...................................................................................... PETITIONER
B.M................................................................................. RESPONDENT
JUDGMENT
The Petitioner, CKM, presented to this court on 1.9.2011 her divorce petition seeking orders for
dissolution of her marriage to the Respondent, BM and custody, care and control of the only child of the
marriage, KM, aged 2 years and 10 months as at the time of presentation in court of the petition.
The Petition was served on the Respondent on 14.10.2011 but he neither entered appearance nor
filed answer to it. On 7th February 2012, the Registrar issued a certificate of compliance pursuant to Rule
29(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Rules and certified the hearing of the Petition as an undefended cause.
The hearing came up before me on 19th April 2012. Mr Austine Odoyo, the learned counsel for the
Petitioner called the Petitioner to testify. I listened to the testimony of the Petitioner. This is what
emerged from her evidence.
The Petitioner and the Respondent solemnized their marriage on 25.06.2008 at the Registrar’s
Office at Sheria House, Nairobi. The Petitioner, then a Spinster, was aged 25 years and the Respondent,
then a bachelor, was aged 27 years. The Petitioner was then a soldier employed by the Kenya
government while the Respondent was self-employed. Both were residing in Umoja, Nairobi at the
time. As proof of the marriage, a copy of the Certificate of marriage No[....] was produced as exhibit No.
P1.
After the marriage, the couple continued to live together at U[.....], Nairobi, in the house they had
occupied for close to one year before the solemnization of their marriage on 25.6.2008. They cohabited
up to 1st June 2010 when the Petitioner moved out of the home they used to call their matrimonial home.
It was the Petitioner’s evidence that the Respondent had made their house help, one
N.M pregnant. The house help confessed this to the Petitioner before the Petioner left the matrimonial
home. When the Petitioner confronted the Respondent about it, the Petitioner said that the Respondent,
refused to discuss it or to see his elder brother, one AW, to whom the incident had been reported with a
view to finding solution. Instead, the Respondent turned on the Petitioner and beat her mercilessly. Even
when she was expecting the child, the Respondent continued to beat the Petitioner. It was the
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