Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has been granted a divorce to finally end his marriage to Beverly Michelle Lax but the bitter dispute between the two is not the only problem the CJ is having with women at the moment.

Just three days after a tribunal found that CJ Mutunga’s deputy, Nancy Baraza, had demeaned her office and will in all likelihood have to stand down, Mutunga parted ways with another woman. Yesterday the High Court annulled Mutunga’s second marriage following often acrimonious divorce proceedings that have been going on since late 2009, the grounds for the divorce being ‘cruelty’, that is Ms Lax’s cruelty to Mr Mutunga.

WILL THE REAL BEVERLY MICHELE LAX PLEASE STAND UP?

Reading the coverage of the court proceedings there is some doubt as to who Willy Mutunga has actually divorced. It could be Prof. Beverly Michelle Lax, as reported by some newspapers, or Beverle Michele Lax and various spellings in between as reported in others. The Star today covers itself by using two different spellings for the lady’s name in the space of two column inches. Either way, the Kenya Forum is confident they are all referring to the same woman.

“PATHOLOGICAL LIAR”

Prof Beverly Michele Lax (the Forum will stick to that variation of her name) alleged that Willy Mutunga had been cruel to her, that he was a “pathological liar”, that he had a “violent and uncaring attitude” towards her, and that he denied his wife ‘conjugal rights’.

Mutunga countered that Ms Lax (OK, safer bet regarding spelling of her name) was cruel to him, had an “ungoverned temper” and that she had assaulted him.

Willy Mutunga, who has two children from his first wife and ‘one child each with two different women’, also claimed that Ms Lax had pestered his ex-wife and called her and his children “parasites”.

Well divorces are often a messy and vicious business unfortunately and who knows what really goes on between a couple, but the Forum does wonder: is having four children by three women, two of whom are not your wife, in any way demeaning to the office of a ‘State officer’?

THE TROUBLE WITH HILLARY

Just as one problem with a women seems to be over for CJ Mutunga another immediately appears over the horizon, this time with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui has demanded the release of information relating to CJ Mutunga’s meeting with Hillary Clinton last weekend. This he says he is allowed under Kenya’s new constitution on the grounds of access to information held by the State and the requirement for the CJ to be transparent.

DID MUTUNGA AND CLINTON DISCUSS THE ICC TRIAL?

In particular, Kinyanjui wants to know if Mrs Clinton offered to support the Kenyan Judiciary and to train Kenyan judges. Perhaps more intriguing is Kinyanjui’s demand to know whether Mutunga and Clinton discussed the International Criminal Court (ICC) case in The Hague, ‘or anything on the suspects’.

Dr Mutunga’s office has by all accounts acknowledged receipt of Harrison Kinyanjui’s request for information. Will the information ever be released? The Kenya Forum doubts it.