Kamangu goes to court to stop Bishop Wanjiru's wedding

James Kamangu, the man from Gachie, a cobbler and potter has made good his threats and has finally moved to court to block Bishop Margaret Wanjiru's wedding with a South African Pastor, Rev. Majeka scheduled on 10th of February 2007.

Kamangu claims he married the bishop under the Kikuyu customary law in 1979. The bishop later left their matrimonial home in Gachie to live in Nairobi after having two sons with Kamangu. The bishop has denied knowledge of Kamangu and his sons have said they are not in the business of looking for their father and are not interested in knowing who their fathers are. This incensed Kamangu who claimed he married their mother while she was still a virgin and is demanding for a DNA paternity test.

He has found support in a group calling itself maendeleo ya wanaume who have extended the demands to include an equal sharing of the couples wealth (Wanjiru's) on top of Kamangu's demands that Wanjiru dissolves the customary union with him and his sons recognize him as their father before he could get married to the South African. Wanjiru had denied knowledge of Kamangu and referred him as 'that man whose fingers look like they have been eaten by jiggers'.

The saga erupted after the bishop declared her interest at the Starehe parliamentary seat currently held by Narc-K sports minister Maina Kamanda. She extended to her congregation at Jesus is Alive Ministries that she will not plunge into politics without a man figure backing her and so will get married before the 2007 elections. Previously, she had testified in 2001 at a women's conference in Mombasa that the two sons had the same father and she got the second one as she 'went to the father to get food and fees for the first born'. The man later mistreated her, was a drunkard and they had to separate. The man remarried later and separated. Put on the spot, Kamangu said that Wanjiru consented to the second wife as is the Kikuyu tradition.

Word on the street has it that Maina Kamanda who is known to play rough politics is the financier behind the whole marriage saga and want to tear down his opponent before they get to the battle field. Powerful hands are behind Kamangu going by the way he speedily acquired birth notification at the notoriously inefficient Pumwani maternity hospital and later got birth certificates for his two sons from the registrar in less than 24 hours. In 2002 it was widely known that Jimnah Mbaru the current chairman of the Nairobi stock exchange and Dyer and Blair investment bank won the NARC nominations but was rigged out to favour the Kibaki compliant Maina Kamanda. Then, Jimnah was of the LDP wing that was competing for NARC nominations with the Kibaki led NAK.

Bishop Wanjiru has an interesting political life ahead of her. There is the court case, her church roles to balance with politics, and a marriage to a South African national bearing in mind that Kenya does not allow for dual citizenship. The same SA man could prove a counter-campaign strategy as some residents have been quoted in the media wondering how they would support a SA man in a Kenyan election. That will be dirty politics for the bishop that does not mix well with purist christianity.