A herd of cows. Cows are used as a form of dowry payment in many Kenyan cultures. [Photo/www.nationmedia.com]
A Kitale farmer has moved to court seeking orders to compel his son-in-law to pay him the bride price.
The farmer, Protus Wanyama Mamati accuses the son-in-law Patrick Wanjala Marango of failing to observe the Bukusu marriage traditions.
He also accuses him of stealing his daughter from school.
According to court documents, Marango pulled Jackline out of school and convinced her to marry him when she was in form 3 Kitale’s Sirende Secondary School in 2011.
"My daughter was doing very well in school until she was pulled out for marriage. Up to now the man has never bothered to come to us for a formal introduction or even pay dowry. It is just like he stole my daughter," Mamato told Kitale Resident Magistrate Peter Wasike as quoted by the Nation, Thursday.
"My son in-law ought to have started paying up by buying me a hat as he saved money to settle the rest but up to now he had neither visited to formally introduce himself nor has he ever sent any token of appreciation in the six years he had been living with his daughter," added the farmer causing laughter in court.
He is now demanding that the son-in-law pay sh50,000 to the father-in-law, sh25,000 to the mother-in-law, 13 cows, two goats, two blankets, two bed sheets, one hat, a pair of gumboots and 20 litres of paraffin.
Marango who has three children with the wife admitted he had not paid the bride price but asked that he be allowed to pay on installments insisting that he respects his community’s marriage traditions and intends to abide by them.
Hearing of the case continues on November 16.