From ‘keep it private’ to a public family feud: Inside Morara Kebaso and Mercy Makini’s escalating fallout

What began as a brief attempt by political activist Morara Kebaso to contain speculation about his marriage has turned into an unusually public dispute over parenting, money, schooling and the breakdown of his relationship with Mercy Makini.

And perhaps the most revealing part of the story is not who is right.

It is how quickly a couple that once publicly presented itself as a partnership has begun producing two sharply different accounts of the same family.

The dispute erupted publicly on Friday after Kebaso responded to online speculation about his marriage and reports linking him to another woman. He initially appeared determined to draw a boundary around his private life, saying he did not want to discuss his family on social media. He nevertheless acknowledged Mercy as the mother of his three children and urged Kenyans to accord her respect.

That might have ended the conversation.

Instead, Mercy responded.

She said she had walked away from the marriage about six months earlier and had deliberately kept the separation private. She then challenged Kebaso's portrayal of himself as a present father, questioning how much he knew about the children's day-to-day lives during the months they had been apart.

That accusation appears to have changed Kebaso's approach entirely.

The man who had hours earlier asked for privacy returned with a lengthy response detailing school fees, parents' meetings, reconciliation attempts and an ongoing court dispute.

The Sh1 million school-fees dispute

At the centre of Kebaso's latest response is an education disagreement that offers a glimpse into what may have been happening away from social media.

Kebaso says the children previously attended Rophine School, where he was paying an average of Sh120,000 per term.

He alleges that while he was away in China, Mercy transferred two of the children to an international school without his consent.

According to him, the resulting school fees and associated expenses are now approximately Sh1 million per term.

His objection, he insists, is not simply financial.

Kebaso says he disagrees philosophically with sending his children to international schools, arguing that he wants them educated alongside ordinary Kenyan children and exposed to what he describes as African values.

“I wanted my children to go to normal Kenyan schools like other children so that they build African values,” he said.

Mercy, according to Kebaso, subsequently went to court seeking to compel him to meet the school costs. Kebaso says he was served with court papers as he prepared to travel to Ethiopia and that the matter remains before the court.

LiveNow Africa could not independently verify the details of the family court proceedings from publicly available court records, and the competing claims should therefore be treated as the parties' accounts.

‘When did I become an irresponsible father?’

But the school-fees disagreement is only part of Kebaso's rebuttal.

Mercy's most damaging allegation was essentially about presence: that after she left the marriage, Kebaso had little knowledge of what his children had been eating for six months.

Kebaso responded by reaching further back into their parenting history.

He claims he attended every parents' meeting after the children started school, sometimes travelling hundreds of kilometres overnight despite his political commitments.

He also challenged teachers at Rophine School to confirm that he would make unannounced visits to inspect his children's schoolwork.

“When did I become an irresponsible father?” he asked.

He invoked memories of caring for their daughter Zainah as a baby, saying he stayed awake at night, washed her and cleaned her clothes.

None of those claims, however, directly settles Mercy's narrower allegation about his involvement during the six months after their separation.

That distinction matters.

Kebaso is presenting evidence of what he says is a long history of active fatherhood; Mercy is questioning his recent involvement after the marriage broke down.

Both claims could therefore form part of a more complicated story than the binary argument now playing out online.

There was once a very different public picture

The contrast with the couple's previous public image is striking.

In 2024, when Kebaso's political profile was rapidly expanding through his tours documenting stalled and abandoned government projects, Mercy was publicly portrayed as an important part of his journey.

Kebaso credited his wife with supporting his activism and helping manage their businesses while he travelled around the country. Contemporary coverage described Mercy as standing alongside him during a politically turbulent period.

Two years later, the conversation has changed completely.

Instead of discussing how Mercy supported his public mission, the couple are debating who attended parents' meetings, who cared for the children and who bears responsibility for their present circumstances.

That transformation makes the current fallout more than another celebrity relationship story.

Kebaso is no longer merely an online activist.

He is pursuing elective office as a Borabu parliamentary aspirant, meaning questions about his private conduct inevitably collide with a political brand built heavily around accountability, transparency and calling powerful people to account.

The same digital arena that helped build his political identity is now scrutinising him.

Mercy says she left; Morara says he tried to bring her back

There is also disagreement over what happened after the relationship collapsed.

Mercy says she walked away about six months ago and deliberately chose not to discuss the circumstances publicly.

Kebaso does not dispute that she left their home, but describes what happened afterwards differently.

He says he was in Kisii when Mercy moved out and returned to Nairobi to discover she had gone.

According to Kebaso, he subsequently made several attempts at reconciliation, including travelling to Mercy's parents' home in Bobasi and asking for a meeting between the two families.

He says that instead of the family reconciliation process he had hoped for, he was served with court papers.

His rhetorical question captures where the relationship appears to have reached: between family reconciliation and litigation, he asked, which process was supposed to work?

That question also reveals something deeper about the dispute.

The couple are no longer merely disagreeing about whether their marriage failed. They appear to disagree over how its failure should now be managed — privately through families, formally through courts, or publicly through competing social-media accounts.

Then another woman entered the public picture

The timing of the confrontation is also significant.

The renewed scrutiny came amid speculation that Kebaso had moved on with another woman.

On Friday evening, TUKO reported that a woman identified as Pauline had posted content with Kebaso and referred to him as her husband. The appearance intensified questions about the status of his relationship with Mercy.

However, publicly available information does not independently establish when any relationship with Pauline began, nor does it prove claims circulating online that it caused the breakdown of Kebaso's marriage.

That distinction is important because social media has increasingly merged confirmed information with speculation.

What is established from Mercy's own account is that she says she left the marriage six months ago.

The children are now at the centre

The most consequential part of the dispute may ultimately have little to do with social media.

It concerns the children.

What began with speculation about an adult relationship has moved into public discussion of where children attend school, how much their education costs, who attends their school meetings and which parent has been more present.

That is where the story becomes more complicated.

Kebaso's argument about international schools is also likely to generate debate of its own.

His suggestion that ordinary Kenyan schools are more likely to instil African values, while international schools can produce privileged children detached from everyday realities, is a personal view rather than an established distinction between the two education systems.

But it demonstrates that the disagreement is not being framed by Kebaso purely as a dispute over whether he can afford Sh1 million per term.

He is presenting it as a dispute over parental authority: who gets to decide how their children are educated after a relationship breaks down?

If his account of the pending case is accurate, that question may ultimately be resolved not on Facebook or X, but through the courts.

A dispute with no independent winner — yet

For all the attention surrounding the Kebaso family, there is still much the public does not know.

Mercy has provided her version of why she finally spoke.

Kebaso has provided his version of his role as a father and his attempts at reconciliation.

Neither social-media account independently proves the entire history of their marriage.

And the existence of a disagreement over school fees does not by itself establish parental neglect, just as attendance at parents' meetings does not necessarily answer questions about financial or day-to-day responsibility after separation.

That makes caution necessary, particularly because children are involved and Kebaso says at least one aspect of the dispute is before court.

What is clear is that the couple have crossed a threshold.

Six months of largely private separation have become a public contest over memory, responsibility and reputation.

Kebaso's first statement warned that when public figures remain silent, others fill the vacuum with their own stories.

Mercy's response demonstrated the other side of that argument: once one person begins telling a family story publicly, the other may decide that silence is no longer an option.

Now both are speaking.

And the more they reveal, the less this looks like a simple scandal about another woman — and the more it looks like a complicated separation involving children, competing ideas about parenting, unresolved financial responsibilities and a court process that may matter far more than the verdict currently being delivered on social media.