Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho yesterday entered a consent to terminate a marriage with his estranged wife.

Joho appeared before the Mombasa Kadhi’s court and signed the consent to end his nine-year marriage to Madina Giovanni Fazzini.

The couple had been separated for the last nine years, prompting Fazzini to file divorce proceedings at the Kadhi’s court on grounds of desertion.

Yesterday, Joho did not object to Fazzini’s prayer to have the marriage dissolved. Although he had been accorded 14 days to reply to Fazzini’s application seeking divorce, the governor opted to present himself before the Kadhi’s court and sign the divorce settlement.

In her divorce papers filed before the court on January 26, Fazzini had sought orders to have the marriage with the governor cancelled, saying it had broken down irretrievably.

She had stated that the governor moved out of their matrimonial home in 2013, the year he was elected governor. “I am clear and unequivocal that our marriage has broken down irretrievably with no chance of revival given we have both moved on over the years,” said Fazzini in her affidavit filed in court.

The two, she told the court, married on February 11, 2011, and they were blessed with two children aged nine and eight years. Fazzini said the governor moved out of the matrimonial home in 2013 leaving her with the two children.

“Since the respondent Joho moved out of our matrimonial home in June 2013, the substance of our marriage has dissipated and has no basis to be sustained from a legal and social standpoint,” said Fazzini.

The woman told the court that she had lived with Joho as husband and wife from the onset of their marriage until January 2013 when they separated and started living in separate quarters.

Upon Joho moving out of the matrimonial home in June 2013, Fazzini said she continued living in the residence until September 2020 when she moved out with the children and started living on her own in Malindi. “I lived in the matrimonial home until 2020. Since then I have been living on my own.”

She told the court there is no hope or possibility of reconciliation or compromise of whatsoever nature or kind between herself and Joho.

Fazzini said she has not been an accessory to or connived or condoned Joho’s actions or colluded with him in bringing the proceedings.