• Court orders DNA tests to establish paternity, which Marwa rejects.
• Woman alleges they had an intimate relationship, she now has one-year-old daughter.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
A woman wants a court to compel Labour Principal Secretary Nelson Marwa to pay Sh180,000 monthly child upkeep
Elizabeth Moraa, 27, on Tuesday urged a Kitale court to order the former Coast coordinator to support the child, accusing him of child neglect.
Moraa claims Marwa is the biological father of her one-year-old daughter and "deliberately refused, ignored and neglected to discharge his parental responsibilities towards the child from the time she was born".
She also claimed that when the infant was born through a caesarean section, Marwa gave her Sh50, 000 to settle the hospital bill. The girl was born on February 7, 2018, she said.
She alleged that she and Marwa had an intimate relationship that began in January 2017.
At the time she met the Marwa she was living in Mombasa and he was Regional Coast Coordinator.
"I have been forced by economic circumstances to stay with a cousin in Kitale, since the minor was born through CS. He has never seen the child to date though he sometimes minimally supports the mother,” read her affidavit presented in court.
Moraa also claimed Marwa declined to provide his identity card so that the child could be issued a birth certificate.
I am not aware of the allegations and I confirm that at no time have I ever financially, socially or even psychologically supported the plaintiff nor the alleged childLabour PS Nelson Marwa
She asked the court to order that actual legal custody, care and control of the minor be left to her.
The woman said the Sh180,000 would include Sh50,000 rent, food and maintenance Sh90,000, medical care Sh10,000, househelp Sh20,000 and entertainment Sh20,000.
However, through advocate Onyango Issac, Marwa denied the allegations, saying the entire suit filed by the plaintiff was bad in law and fundamentally defective.
He said that the complainant was a stranger to him and he is not conversant with the allegations filed in court.
Marwa said that while he was Regional Commissioner, Coast Region until in 2018 he dealt with members of the public and government officials. He said such meetings were purely official and he did not engage with anyone he met or had any intimate relationship as alleged.
Senior resident magistrate C. M. Kesse ordered both parties to present themselves within 14 days for collection of DNA samples at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
"Where the DNA samples shall be tested and report filed in court within one month from the date hereof," she ordered.
The matter will be heard on April 23, 2019