Kitany: Linturi was both romantic and cruel

They say that the other side of love is hate.

Going by Marrianne Kitany's court testimony on Wednesday, that saying is frighteningly true. 

The estranged wife of  Meru Senator Mithika Linturion Wednesday painted a picture a husband both romantic and passionate, cruel and sadistic.

Wearing a royal blue dress, Kitany testified that Linturi hired thugs to break into her Runda home in the night.

She said he threatened her, took away her property ownership documents and personal possessions. He beat her up when she enquired about documents, entertained other women in Meru and sent a woman to befriend and poison her her food, Kitany told the court.

When he kicked her and her children out of their Runda home, Linturi told police that there were terrorists at the home, only for them to arrive and find her children, a sick relative and an uncle.

They were bundled into a bus with only the clothes on their backs. They were thrown o the floor and her son was slapped, she said.

 It was after this cruelty that Kitany says she sought orders to bar Linturi from accessing the home.

But it started out with love, they were soulmates, and Kitany produced evidence that she said proved his devotion.

"Every time I set my eyes on you, a part of me softens, You are my love, you are my world, you are my everything...." those were the romantic words Kitany quoted Linturi as writing to her  four years ago when then were ensnared in a web of love that has caught rivetted the nation.

This love according to Kitany was formalised by her chewing a bunch of miraa made in the shape of a manhood. The packed courtroom burst into laughter.

A poem written by Linturi on Kitany's birthday depicts a love that was pure until she said his wicked ways degraded it.

“With you, I grow and glow, With you, I survive and thrive, With you, I live and dive. Knowing that you will always be my side,” reads the poem.

A video played in court shows a romantic poem with regular rhyme. As the poem proceeds, pictures of Linturi and Kitany are shown.

Linturi who signs out "happy birthday, my love," further tells Kitany that he thanks the Lord for "sending an angel like her" to him.

The next photo showed Kitany feeding Linturi a piece of cake on her birthday and she informed the court that was when the poem was presented.

According to Kitany, in Meru culture the miraa was a symbol of the marriage she entered into with the senator and she even chewed a leaf to seal their wedlock.

Linturi drank a glass of mursik (sour milk) given to him by Nandi elders to seal the marriage as tradition demands.

In one of the wedding photos, Linturi is seen wearing a blue and white striped T-shirt and handing Ktany the miraa 'manhood' while smiling broadly.

Kitany told the court that the lawmaker bought a pair of rings that they put on to symbolise their marriage.

However, she claimed he stopped wearing his ring recently. This made Linturi lift his left hand to show the court that indeed there was no ring.

All of her descriptions were intended to show that they were truly in love and married, despite Linturi's claim that she was just a visitor in his home and meant nothing to him.

Another picture shows Kitany at Linturi's brother funeral, another shows her being introduced to a crowd during a campaign.

The court was also shown a picture of Kitany and Linturi wrapped in a duvet given to them as a gift, perhaps to show they were one,  during a prize-giving day at their daughter’s school.

Another video shows them donning red Jubilee outfits as Meru women celebrate Linturi's win tin 2017 in heir home in Meru.

Kitany also showed the court photos of the senator mingling with the people during the traditional marriage in her home.

This was a far cry from the image of the man she also called brutal and said evicted Kitany and her children from their palatial homes.

Kitany claims that the love was short-lived when Linturi started coming home late and she became suspicious.

She snooped in his phone, find to and found photos of women and also pornographic videos sent to him by several women.

“Initially it was cheating and just like other women, I would sneak into his phone. I became suspicious of his moves because he would come home later, didn't want to give me my conjugal rights and he would be quarrelling,” Kitany said.

When she asked him what was going on, she said he evaded answering the question by leaving their matrimonial home in Runda and going to Meru where he would operate.

Kitany told the court that the Meru legislator also beat her up when she asked about adultery.

This led her to file for divorce in December of 2018 when she said she had tried everything to save their marriage to no avail.

The mother of three claimed that Linturi came home late and drunk.

She said she also learned that Linturi took titles of properties belonging to her relatives and charged them in a bank and has never returned the document to date.

The court also heard that one of their househelps in Meru told her that Linturi used to bring women ladies to the house. But the maid died before Kitany went to see her in Meru.

Kitany told court that their families, including Lituri's parents, tried to mediate. 

He threatened her several times, said, after she raised the issue of forged documents, forcing her to report the matter to the Director of Criminal Investigations.

She revealed that she already had gotten protection orders against him and had filed for the preservation of property.

But she claimed her that in December last year, her estranged lover-husband went to the Runda home with the police, thugs and dogs.

They broke the gate and one of the doors and managed to enter the house, she said.

Linturi and police watched from outside as she and her children ere bundled out, she told the court.

She said there was no court order allowing them to be evicted and they were driven out of the house with only the clothes on their backs.

The people. both men and women, went to evict them. They arrived in a 52-seater bus accompanied by Linturi and some of his friends, Kitany said.

She narrated that they lifted the seat they were on, threw them down and even slapped her son.

Kitany said Linturi was giving instructions to the thugs and even to the police who stood outside as they were kicked out.

She told the court that she and the children stayed at relatives' homes waiting for the court to rule because they did not have anywhere to go.

Kitany added that the Deputy Registrar visited the home and found the locks changed but Linturi forgot to change them in the son's bedroom and they entered the house through his room.

At this point, she told the court, she demonstrated to the Deputy Registrar that she was staying in that house.

Linturi had removed all their belongings from the house to show that court that she never stayed in that house, she said.

However, she added, being a woman she knew where all things were and they forgot to take everything, which included the children’s books.

The court then allowed her to go back to house temporarily but the doors were still locked and she sought police assistance to break them.

Kitany told the court that they found 18 new pangas and in the house, which she gave to police who had gone with her to the house.

She also said that to date they have never been given back their personal possessions, even asking Linturi through his lawyers to return to them.

She told the court Linturi accused her of destroying his career.

Kitany also sensationally claimed that a  woman told her Linturi that hired her to poison her, adding that she still fears for her life.

She alleged that a woman approached her this year and said she was sent by Linturi to poison her. She claimed the woman, who was not identified, was supposed to befriend her and put deadly poison in her food.

Kitany said that she has no problems living with Linturi’s children, even after filing for divorce.

She has also filed a case seeking custody of all the six children that they shared among each other.

Kitany said her marriage was conducted in public before many people and the same people should know how it is being dissolved.

Linturi still maintains that he was never married to Kitany, calling her merely a visitor in his house.

Yesterday before she was stood down, Linturi produced a wedding video showing his marriage to Mercy Kaimenyi in the year 2000.

Through his lawyer Muthomi Thiankolu, Linturi claimed that Kitany who was still married at the time could not have cohabited with him.

However, a defiant Kitany rubbished the claims and insisted that they indeed stayed together and legalised their union after she got her decree in 2016.

The case resumes on Monday next week when cross-examination will proceed after she was stood down by the court.

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