- Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, the politician accused of attempted rape after allegedly sneaking into a couple's hotel room, is a man overrun by controversies.
- The 52-year-old has been thrust into yet another messy situation and has been entangled in a sexual assault allegation.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Meru Senator Mithika Linturi is a man of many controversies.
In the latest, the politician is accused of attempted rape after allegedly sneaking into a couple's hotel room.
From the political arena to the bedroom, Linturi appears to move from one controversy to the next.
For more than three years now, Linturi has had a dramatic and acrimonious divorce with his estranged wife, Marianne Kitany.
At one point, Kitany sensationally claimed the legislator could not "rise to the occasion" in the bedroom.
“Linturi was unable to rise to the occasion in the bedroom on several occasions, claiming exhaustion, sickness, but for the most part he simply could not,” she claimed
In fact, Kitany described to court how their relationship started as a fling but blossomed into an intense love affair.
She claimed their love was short-lived. Linturi started coming home late and she became suspicious.
She snooped in his phone and found photos of women and also pornographic videos sent to him by several women.
However, Linturi insisted they were never married.
In August 2012, a separate woman sued the lawmaker for abandoning her and their three-year-old son.
She claimed they were married in May 2008 under Meru customary law and that she gave birth to their son in 2010.
The woman claimed that Linturi was a good "sponsor" until sometime in 2011 when he turned "cruel, abusive, irresponsible and negligent".
In November 2017, the University of Nairobi de-registered his 2014 law degree, after it was discovered the politician presented fake papers when enrolling for the course.
The university Senate resolved to de-register him. This followed investigations that revealed forgery of the degree from a university in India that he used to secure admission at University of Nairobi in 2014.
However, the High Court overturned the UoN decision, terming it illegal.
The senator graduated in 2020 with his law degree.
In October 2018, Linturi's househelp died mysteriously, a death that shocked the country. There were claims that she was also hurriedly buried without a postmortem being performed.
In March, Linturi faced prosecution over claims he used forged signatures to secure a Sh530 million bank loan using Kitany's properties as collateral.
He was accused of forging signatures to secure the Sh530 million bank loan.
In May, he was arrested briefly, then released on police bond over the loan he took from Family Bank two years ago.
Linturi was accused of fraudulently kicking out Baron Estates from ownership of Atticon and further increasing the loan secured using the Baron’s property without its consent.
An audit filed in court indicated that Rodha Kitany’s signature was forged to secure loans of Sh100 million from Family Bank.
It also was used to secure another loan of Sh325.7 million and a separate overdraft facility of Sh100 million using the properties of Baron Estates.
(Edited by V. Graham)