JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The appellant and the respondent were wife and husband having celebrated their marriage on 5th August, 1978 at Siaya Township in the then Nyanza Province. They were blessed with four children who are now adults. However, following marital problems, the appellant filed a divorce cause in the year 2002 seeking, inter alia, dissolution of the marriage and division of matrimonial property.
The grounds in support of the petition for divorce were that the respondent was guilty of desertion, cruelty and adultery. The High Court (Makhandia, J. as he then was) directed that the hearing first be in respect of the petition for divorce and thereafter on the division of matrimonial property. The divorce hearing proceeded as an undefended cause and the appellant was granted a divorce on 7th May, 2009 on account of the respondent’s adultery.
In regard to the issue of division of matrimonial property, it was the appellant’s case that when she got married in the year 1978, she was w…