• Muriithi has said he will take responsibility, but will only pay her Sh10,000 monthly upkeep because he depends on well-wishers to survive.
• In his replying affidavit, the cleric say he had a short lived relationship on and off with the woman which ended in the year 2018.
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House of Grace Bishop David Muriithi has said he is willing to pay Sh10,000 in a case in which a woman sued him, saying he is the father of her child born out of wedlock.
Muriithi has said he will take responsibility for the child, but will only pay Sh10,000 monthly upkeep because he depends on well-wishers to survive.
“I offer to take full responsibility of paying fees for the minor as well as payment of 10,000 per month for the minor’s upkeep bearing in mind my limited means and family responsibility,” he says.
In his replying affidavit, the cleric say he had a short lived relationship on and off with the woman which ended in the year 2018.
"... as a responsible adult who had a liaison with the applicant, I am convinced that it would be in the best interest of the child for me to take up reasonable parental responsiblity over the child whom the applicant claims to be mine as that is the reasonable thing to do to protect the innocent minor."
“When I met the applicant she was living in her own rented house with her other teenage child sired from a different relation where she paid her own rent,” his affidavit reads.
However, Muriithi argues that he was not aware that the woman was pregnant and she never disclosed to him that she was pregnant.
He, however, recalled that she kept complaining that she had fibroids and never spoke about any pregnancy.
“The first time I learnt of the pregnancy was long after the relationship ended when I called to say hello and in the process she casually informed me that she was at St. Mary to deliver a baby which shocked me and so she is lying that I knew about the pregnancy,” reads court papers.
The Bishop says there was no way he would have been excited about a pregnancy that he did not know about and which she had hidden from him.
Muriithi has accused the woman of using the child to extort money from him since she thinks he is wealthy.
Muriithi says that as much as he is a Bishop in the church he heads, it is not true that he lives a high end life and this is only a pigment of her imagination.
“It is clear in my mind that the applicant having had the misconception that I live a high end life somehow has caused herself to conceive with the sole aim of getting a slice of the perceived ‘high end’ life,” he says
He further states that the woman’s scheme seems to be that she will use the child to unlawfully achieve her objective.
“In a move that was either intended to extort money from me or embarrass me, the case was splashed all over social media against the provision of the law including the Star and Mpasho,” he claims.
Muriithi says her main objective was to sensationalise the story and put pressure on him to succumb to her extortion scheme and she does not have the welfare of the child at heart.
“As a responsible adult who had liaison with the applicant, I am convinced that it would in the best interest of the child for me to take up the reasonable parental responsibility over the child whom she claims to be mine as that is the most responsible thing to do to protect the minor,” he said.
He says he will pay the school fees for the child but the school the mother chose is too expensive and he will not afford it.
“I was not consulted in the choice of Kiota School neither can I afford the fees in that school as I have no regular income and only rely on well-wishers for support for the church and my family,” he says.
Edited by CM