Bishop Margaret Wanjiru Court Case: Wedding Now Halted By High Court

The high court yesterday halted the wedding plans of one of the most successful television evangelists in Kenya, Bishop (Dr) Margaret Wanjiru to her South African suitor after an injunction filed by her alleged husband, Jimmy Kamangu, a nobody who rose to the limelight recently after claiming he was Wanjiru's husband and had sired two boys with her.

In a saga that reads like a popular Mexican soap opera, Kenyans have been keenly following the story of the Jesus Is Alive Ministries evangelist who has more often than not made 'ungodly' comments about Kamangu to the extent of telling him to "go and hung himself and we will do a funeral".

So far, what many Kenyans have concluded is that this is a case where an ambitious wife left her hopeless husband and made it big by becoming rich and famous only to be haunted by her past as she went ahead with her life and opted to remarry without legally ending her first marriage.

Kamangu on the other hand is a changed man. In the initial interviews when he claimed that he was Wanjiru's legally wedded husband, the man from Gachie near Nairobi could easily pass for a manual laborer with his threadbare jackets and worn out shoes that had seen better days.

Of late, he only wears new clothes and walks around with a brief case not to mention self appointed bodyguards hence raising questions whether the man is being financed by unknown persons, probably "enemies" of Wanjiru. How else could the man have financed his going to court yet the cost of litigation in Kenya is not cheap notwithstanding that Kamangu is unemployed and just another 'rural fellow' surviving from hand to mouth.

Now that the TV evangelist Bishop Margaret Wanjiru has declared her interest in plunging into competitive politics, and in particularly contesting the Starehe parliamentary seat, it is not difficult to imagine why Kamangu has 'come up' now after his silence of several years. The man had even remarried but his second wife also left him a few years ago.

And make no mistake about it, Wanjiru is truly in politics. During the court hearing yesterday, hundreds of her supporters staged a peaceful demonstration outside the court in support of her and waved placards heaped with praises for the evangelist whose favorite opening remarks in her sermons is, "the glory of the Lord is here."

Kenyans are now anxiously waiting for the court ruling as the soap opera continues but the turning point will be when the paternity of Wanjiru's two boys is confirmed through a DNA test as she has in the past denied that she did not sire the boys with Kamangu though the resemblance between them and the 'man from Gachie' is striking, but again, looks can be deceiving.

More recent Wanjiru story:
Bishop Wanjiru Joins ODM