In a sensational lawsuit, Deputy President William Ruto's ex-college girl lover yesterday urgently demanded he support their 10-year-old love child.
Accusing him of abruptly abandoning them since he became DP, Prisca Chemutai Bett said she lives in abject poverty because Ruto has neglected all parental responsibilities.
This is the first such suit involving the DP, who is known for his wealth and generosity.
In a quick rejoinder yesterday, Ruto said his daughter was well provided for, contrary to the lawsuit's claims.
"My 11-year-old child Abby is well catered for, including her education in private boarding school," he said via Twitter.
He asked politicians and "Busybodies to keep off".
The mother filed an urgent application at the Milimani law courts yesterday, accusing Ruto of refusing to provide the most basic necessities for the child, not visiting the child and denying her his love.
Chemutai wants about Sh200,000 monthly maintenance, not including fees at a good school "reflecting his status"; a "quality vehicle" to transport the girl to and from school and elsewhere; security personnel for the girl and medical expenses. (See box)
“I am currently struggling to educate the child single-handedly, despite the fact that he is the Deputy President, a man of means who is able to provide for us,” she says in suit papers filed through the law firm of Gitobu Imanyara.
“He discontinued offering any form of monetary support to me and our daughter, leaving us in abject poverty,” Chemutai says.
The former lover says the girl is entitled to good health, food, school fees, decent clothing, shelter and medication — whether her parents are married or not.
“He has totally eschewed and neglected his parental responsibility as demanded of him under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” she says.
Chemutai describes how she was introduced to Ruto by a mutual friend in 2005, while she was a student at Moi University.
Ruto was then MP for Eldoret North.
The married lawmaker made various propositions for a romantic relationship and as she was a young, gullible and naive student, she accepted his advances, she says.
Soon their love affair blossomed, she said.
“During our relationship and whenever he was in Eldoret he would invite me to his residence in Eldoret where I would spend the night with him," she said.
She gave birth to a girl on March 6, 2006, at Mediheal Hospital.
Shortly afterward, Ruto assured her he would take full parental responsibility for their daughter and promised to sufficiently provide for both of them.
They lived a comfortable life until 2013, when Ruto became Deputy President.
She says she succumbed to fell Ruto’s charms and his assurances that he would support her financially.
Initially he did so — “albeit not to the standards that would have been expected of a high-ranking politician and businessman within the Republic of Kenya.”
The woman, who only has the one child, says Ruto only sent her money after she threatened to go to court. And when he did, the payment was irregular and wholly inadequate, she says.
“In 2013, I received some money by M-Pesa amounting to Sh35,000 from a messenger of his, whom I called and who informed me that he had been told to send me the money by the DP."
“After the advocates issued the demand, he then sent me a sum of Sh40,000 through an aide," reads the affidavit.
She breaks down her request for monthly allowance:
Sh30,000 for food, Sh80,000 for rent, Sh20,000 for clothing, Sh35,000 for toiletries and Sh15,000 for house help.
Chemutai says efforts to have the DP assume his parental responsibilities have been futile, leaving her no option but to seek court intervention.
According to her, because of the DP's parental failures, she has been forced to move out of the house he was renting for her into a smaller house in a cheaper estate.
The woman says unless the DP is compelled to maintain their daughter properly, she will continue being subjected to unnecessary suffering due to lack of the most basic necessities to which she is entitled.
The former lover says their child deserves "parental care and protection, including equal responsibility of the mother and father to provide for the child, whether they are married to each other or not".
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