Furious Tuju disowns Lonely Hearts post
Former cabinet minister Raphael Tuju has disowned a post on a dating column which portrayed him as looking for new love.
An angry Tuju vowed to take legal action against the person behind the post accusing him of impersonation.
He was reacting to an advert in Saturday Nation’s ‘Lonely Hearts’ column in which a man going by the name Tuju invited women interested in marriage to get in touch with him through his mobile phone or a short text message.
The man presented himself as a 53-year-old separated man who had given up his previous love for someone better.
“Tuju is a 53-year-old separated man. Whenever God asks you to give something up, He is never trying to take that thing away. He is trying to get something better for you. I am here ready for someone better,” read the post.
Violent wife
The description closely fitted the former minister, who has gone to court seeking to divorce his wife Ruth Akinyi.
Investigations by NairobiNews also established that the phone number given on the post was registered to a Raphael Tuju.
“That is not my number. I am not crazy. It is a police case that somebody should register a sim card in my name. You should investigate who used my identity to register that sim card,” the former minister protested.
He later called to say he had reported the matter to the CID.
NairobiNews established that the post was placed in Kisumu by a man identified as Edwin Makunda. Efforts to reach him failed as his phone went unanswered.
Mr Tuju moved to court last year seeking to divorce Ms Akinyi, his wife of 27 years on grounds of infidelity.
In a sworn affidavit, he accused Ms Akinyi of cheating on him with a General Service Unit ex-officer Anthony Ogunda, who has since died.
Mr Ogunda was listed as the second respondent in the case. Mr Tuju also accused Ms Akinyi of being violent to him and their children.
“Sometime in 2011, I learnt that she was adulterous and had become abusive and disrespectful to the extent of playing her adulterous life at the knowledge of my children.
While I was away from home attending official and business duties, I learnt that my wife had a partner boyfriend,” he said.