NAIROBI, Kenya, July 13- The spouse to double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot was charged at an Eldoret court on Friday for escaping parental responsibility.
Moses Kirui Kiplagat, who married the athletic superstar runner at a formal traditional ceremony last year, has been sued by his estranged former wife Caroline Kwambai, to meet basic needs for the three children they sired together during their 12-year union.
Kwambai, also an athlete who finished fourth at the junior race at the 1990 World Cross in France, through her lawyer Caleb Obwatinyo charged that Kiplagat stopped paying school fees for the children in 2007.
She also wants some of the properties she alleges they sourced and developed together be transferred to her.
The 36-year-old claimant who works as a warder at Langata Women’s Prison in Nairobi also contended her former husband has been collecting more than Sh50, 000 ($602) monthly as rent on residential houses in Eldoret town.
Kwambai further charged that during their companionship, her husband used to control all the income she won in international races in the case that appeared before Eldoret Resident Magistrate Mary Njagi.
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She posited that they did customary marriage and constructed Sh1.3m ($15,476) in Kaptarakwa that is Kiplagat’s current rural home. She alleges that her former husband has since kicked her with the children.
“He has been living with our eldest son with his current wife and they chased him late last year and he has abandoned his duty as a parent.
“That is the reason why the court should compel him to take responsibility,” the aggrieved prayed to the court added.
Cheruiyot was due to compete at the London Grand Prix round of the Samsung Diamond League in Gateshead on Friday as final build-up for the Olympics.
She will represent the country in the 5, 000 m and 10, 000 races where the double Daegu champion is bidding to become the first athlete from her nation to achieve the feat that would cement her name in history.
The court instructed Kemboi to do valuation of the total cost of the upkeep in one week before issuing further direction.
Kwambai who is still active in the sport recently finished third (34:46.5) over 10,000m at the Kenya Prisons Championships on May 4 before finishing second (2:36:32) at the E.ON Mitte Kassel Marathon in Germany two weeks later.
She was runner-up in the 2003 Amsterdam Marathon in her lifetime best of 2:28:47.
– Courtesy of K24
