- Lawyer Butende says in the application that the petitioner has been under physical assault and abuse occasioned.
- "I am being forcefully married off by the Respondent and I was informed by their housekeeper that the Respondent was planning to forcefully marry me contrary to the law."
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A woman has moved to court seeking conservative orders against her mother who allegedly planned to forcefully marry her off to a man she doesn't love.
The daughter's name is withheld, through her lawyer Yashim Butende has filed the application under a certificate of agency in the High Court Human Rights Division, seeking some conservative orders to help her from being married off and the violation of her rights.
Lawyer Butende says in the application that the petitioner has been under physical assault and abuse occasioned by the respondent who has the ill-motive and selfish desire to marry her off contrary to the belief and choice of the petitioner.
In the court papers, the daughter says that she was informed by the housekeeper that the plans to marry her were on top gear.
"I am being forcefully married off by the Respondent and I was informed by their housekeeper that the Respondent was planning to forcefully marry me contrary to the law. After realizing her plan, I parked my things and went to a safe place at a Kajiado hotel," she said.
Lawyer Yashim also says in court papers that the woman was to be married off after an elaborate plan by the mother, stepfather and some of the neighbors had been planned.
"I almost didn’t make it out of the house following the intransigence by the Respondent and the nearby neighbors and despite the commotion my stepfather and the neighbors caused, I did not get away," she said.
My mother had a group of certain neighbors who wanted to marry me off and had hired a group of Rendile young men whose job included detaining the Applicant and monitoring her movement."
At a hotel in Kajiado, she managed to contact some people who came to her aid and at some point, her mother reported her as a lost person to Langata police station prompting her arrest.
The court has also been informed that the woman later got some help from Amnesty International and and Usikimye Organisation.
"At a Kajiado hotel I was approached by cops from Langata police station after my mother reported me as missing, causing the police to show up I was arrested, taken to the station, and later taken to a rescue center where the Rendile youths have made attempts to infiltrate my rights," she said.
The woman is seeking orders that the court declares the Respondent's actions have caused adverse and/or inimical effects on her and she is living in fear and mental anguish as a result of several men consistently following her with the intention to abduct her to marry her off as per the wishes and selfish desires of the respondent of the Respondents.
Pending the hearing and determination of the petition, the Court issued a conservatory order restraining the Respondents or their agents from dealing with her in any manner whatsoever that intimidates her rights as envisioned in the Constitution of Kenya.