The court has ordered the flamboyant televangelist Bishop David Muriithi of House of Grace Church to file a formal request for a DNA test to be undertaken in a paternity case he is involved in.
This is after Muriithi, through his lawyer Njoroge, urged the court to perform a DNA test on the two years old son.
However, the woman’s lawyer, Danstan Omari, claimed that the DNA test was an afterthought by the Bishop after he admitted to pertanity test in an affidavit.
“I offer to take full responsibility of paying fees for the minor and as well as payment of 10,000 per month for the minor’s upkeep bearing in mind my limited means and family responsibility,” the Bishop said in an affidavit.
Omari asked why the issue was being brought up in court without a formal application and was never mentioned in the affidavit.
Njoroge replied that Muriithi only admitted to a relationship and not paternity as the defence has claimed.
Resident Magistrate Festus Terer directed Njoroge to file the formal application for DNA as is required by law and Omari to respond to it.
The bishop also requested that the media be barred from covering the case, however, the court declined.
Omari told the court that there’s an order that was issued by another court in the Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka case where the orders barring the media were stayed.
Magistrate Terer said he will not bar the media until he reads the orders of the High Court.
The man of the cloth yesterday said that the woman suing him for child support never disclosed to him during their relationship that she was pregnant.
He said the woman only kept complaining to him that she had fibroids, adding that he is now realizing otherwise and that he learnt she was pregnant long after they had ended their relationship.
“When I called to say hello…in the process, she casually informed me that she was at St. Mary’s Hospital Lang’ata to deliver a child, which shocked me…I could not have been excited about a pregnancy that I did not know about and which was all along hidden from me,” read the affidavit.
The woman identified as Judy Mutave Muasya sued the Bishop and demanded a Sh100, 000 monthly allowance for child maintainance and upkeep.
Muriithi said he will take responsibility of the child but he can only afford Sh10,000 on a monthly basis since he depends on well-wishers to survive.
The Bishop also said the demand that he be compelled to take the child to Kiota School is unreasonable as he cannot afford fees at the said institution since he has no regular income and only relies on well-wishers for support of the church as well as his family.
He said that when the child gets to age 4, then he can take up his school fees as shall have been agreed upon between the two parties and their advocates.
“I was not consulted on the choice of Kiota School, neither can I afford the school fess in the said school,” he stated.
