[2015] KEHC 5515 (KLR)
The court found that the Petitioner had established, on a balance of probabilities, that the Respondent had subjected her to acts of cruelty, including physical assault, emotional abuse, abandonment, and eviction from the matrimonial home. The Respondent's failure to respond to the Petition or appear in court left...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2015] KEHC 5515 (KLR)
- Parties
- Petitioner: T W K; Respondent: T K K
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nairobi (Milimani Commercial Courts)
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Divorce Cause 97 of 2014
- Procedural Posture
- Divorce Cause / Judgment
- Outcome
- petition allowed; marriage dissolved
- Judges
- LA Achode
- Legal Topics
- Divorce, Cruelty, Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage, Matrimonial Violence
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
T W K
Petitioner
T K K
Respondent
Procedural Posture
Divorce Cause / Judgment
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the Respondent's conduct amounted to cruelty towards the Petitioner and the children.
- 2 Whether the marriage between the Petitioner and Respondent has irretrievably broken down and should be dissolved.
Ratio Decidendi
The court found that the Petitioner had established, on a balance of probabilities, that the Respondent had subjected her to acts of cruelty, including physical assault, emotional abuse, abandonment, and eviction from the matrimonial home. The Respondent's failure to respond to the Petition or appear in court left the Petitioner's evidence unchallenged. The court was satisfied that the marriage had irretrievably broken down, with the parties living apart for fourteen years and reconciliation attempts proving fruitless. Accordingly, the court held that the legal threshold for dissolution of marriage on grounds of cruelty and irretrievable breakdown had been met.
Court Disposition
petition allowed; marriage dissolved
Orders
- The marriage celebrated between the Petitioner and Respondent at the Buru Buru Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Nairobi on 6th August, 1997, is hereby dissolved.
- Decree nisi dissolving the said marriage is hereby issued, to be made absolute thirty (30) days from the date of this judgment.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
25 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT NAIROBI
DIVORCE CAUSE NO. 97 OF 2014
BETWEEN
T W K ………………………….……………………PETITIONER
AND
T K K ………………..…………………….………RESPONDENT
JUDGMENT
1. The Petitioner, then a spinster and the Respondent then a bachelor on or about May 1976 started living together as husband and wife and later solemnized their marriage on 6th August, 1997 at the Buru Buru Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Nairobi. A certificate of marriage serial Number [particulars withheld] was issued to them in accordance with the Marriage Act (Cap 150 Laws of Kenya). The couple thereafter cohabited in Jerusalem, Umoja and Buru Buru Estates respectively. Both Petitioner and Respondent are domiciled in Kenya and were blessed with three issues of the marriage as follows:
1) B N born on 8th August 1976
2) C K born on 24th March 1979 (deceased)
3) M P M born on 11th November 1983.
2. The amended Petition filed on 15th September 2014 is premised on grounds of cruelty. The acts of cruelty are said to have been perpetrated against the Petitioner and the children by the Respondent. The Petitioner averred that the Respondent had on several occasions treated her with contempt, abused her, exposed her to emotional torture and threatened physical violence. The Petitioner states that sometime in October 1980 the Respondent moved out of their Jerusalem home to Umoja Estate with all their belongings and left her with no financial support for her and the children. That in August 1982 he physically assaulted her and accused her of chasing his brother away from their home.
3. The Petitioner further states that in October 1986, the Respondent physically assaulted her, which made her to move out and go to live in Kinoo with the children. Her mother intervened and urged her to go back to her matrimonial home which she did. That in the year 2000 the violence persisted against her and the children and on one occasion the Respondent locked her out of the house when she came from a women’s self-help meeting. That the Respondent evicted the children on 7th June 2000 and the Petitioner was forced to rent a house for her eldest son.
4. The Petitioner asserts that the Respondent has lived away from her for fourteen years to date and various attempts at reconciliation have been fruitless. She has therefore asked the court to find that the marriage between the Petitioner and the Respondent has broken down irretrievably. She prays for the dissolution of the marriage and confirms that this Petition has not been presented or prosecuted in collision with the Respondent, nor has she connived or condoned the cruelty complained of. She also certifies that there have been no previous proceedings filed regarding the marriage.
5. The Respondent was served as is evinced by the affidavit of service dated 3rd February 2015 but did not file an answer to the Petition or a cross-Petition. On 5th February 2015 the Deputy Registrar certified that the matter was suitable to proceed for hearing as an undefended cause for one day in Nairobi. The Petitioner testified on 12th March 2015 and basically restated what she had set out in the grounds of the Petition and the supporting affidavit. The Respondent did not appear in court.
6. From the foregoing it is evident that the ill-fated marriage celebrated between the parties herein on 6th August, 1997 has irretrievably broken down and there is no will, at least on the part of the Respondent, to salvage it.
For those reasons I make orders as follows:
a) That the marriage celebrated between the Petitioner and Respondent at the Buru Buru Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Nairobi on 6th August, 1997, is hereby dissolved.
b) That Decree nisi dissolving the said marriage is hereby issued, to be made absolute thirty (30) days from the date of this judgment.
c) There shall be no orders as to costs.
SIGNED DATEDandDELIVEREDin open court this 16th day of April 2015.
…………………………………….
L. A. ACHODE
JUDGE