• Cleric refused to pay for the woman’s utilities including Wi-Fi and DSTV, saying they are not basic needs for a two year old. Will pay Sh10K monthly.
• Bishop says a two-year-old child cannot be taken to school, despite what his mother says. Will pay fees later at a basic school to be agreed upon.
Image: HOUSE OF GRACE
House of Grace Bishop David Muriithi says a two-year-old does not need Wi-Fi as claimed by a woman seeking child support.
He was responding to a petition against him by a woman who claims he fathered her two-year-old son.
He said he will not pay more than Sh10,000 a month.
Muriithi said in an affidavit filed in the Children's Court that Wi-Fi and DSTV are not basic needs for a child of that age.
The bishop also said he knows children must get an education, however, he argues that according to the Kenya education system the school-going age is four years and not two.
Muriithi said when the child is age four, he will pay for his fees in a basic school agreed upon by him, the woman and their lawyers.
The woman has chosen a school known as Kiota but the bishop said he cannot afford the fees as he has no regular income and relies on well-wishers for support of the church as well as his family.
He refused to pay for the woman's utilities, including Wi-Fi and DSTV.
“...a child of two years does not require Wi-Fi or DSTV and the applicant cannot use the birth of the minor to demand that I pay for the said utilities,” the bishop said.
He also said he will not pay Sh10,000 for a househelp as she wanted. She had paid a househelp herself prior to the birth of the child, so that is not his responsibility, Muriithi said.
He declined her demand for Sh5,000 electricity, Sh3,000 Wi-Fi, Sh3,000 gas, Sh2,000 DSTV and Sh3,000 water. He said the woman paid those bills herself before the birth of the child.
The child does not need Sh35,000 accommodation, as the mother demanded, because she was renting a house before the baby was born, he said.
Before their short-lived, on-and-off relationship, the woman was in gainful business and is therefore able to cater for the child's maintenance, the bishop said.
He said the relationship ended in 2018.
“She is currently enjoying a comfortable abode which she shares with her teenage son as well as the minor herein and that shows she is in a position to provide accommodation and food,” Muriithi said.
As a responsible Kenyan, he was offering to pay fees for the minor and pay Sh10,000 monthly subsistence, he said.
“I make the commitment, bearing in mind my limited means and family responsibilities which I am obliged to meet, as well as the fact that the minor's education will take the largest share of the minor's maintenance,” the bishop said.
He told the court he also has a wife and children to care for using donations from well-wishers, which are erratic.
“I do not earn any salary from the church and therefore I do not have a regular income or payslip. But rather I depend purely on donations from well-wishers and such donations have not been forthcoming due to Covid-19 pandemic where church activities have been disrupted for two years,” he said.
He also said the Constitution envisages equal responsibilities for a minor, from both him and the woman.
He said he was not aware the woman was pregnant, as she claimed in her petitions filed against him.
The bishop said he first heard of the pregnancy long after the relationship ended and he called her to say hello. She casually told him she was in hospital to deliver a child.
“As a responsible Kenyan who had liaison with the applicant, I am convinced it would be in the best interests of the child for me to take up reasonable parental responsibility for the child whom the applicant claims to be mine as that is the most reasonable thing to do to protect the innocent minor,” court documents read.
(Edited by V. Graham)