Former KTN news anchor Esther Arunga has formally returned to her maiden name, ending a 16 year link to her estranged husband, Quincy Timberlake.
A Gazette notice published on October 9, 2026, confirmed that Arunga signed a deed poll on October 2 renouncing the name Esther Adongo Timberlake.
From now on, she is to be known only as Esther Adongo Arunga for all purposes. The filing was handled by LAK Advocates and registered at the Registry of Documents in Nairobi.
Arunga had announced she was taking the Timberlake name in March 2010, soon after her marriage. The years that followed were painful.
The couple moved to Australia, where their three year old son, Sinclair, died in June 2014. Arunga pleaded guilty to being an accessory and was sentenced to ten months in prison, then released on parole in 2019.
Timberlake’s case took longer. He pleaded guilty in September 2023 and received an 11 year sentence after admitting to fatally injuring the boy. Reports from June 2026 said he had finished the custodial part of his sentence but was still being held in immigration detention.
The notice lists a Nairobi postal address for Arunga, which has led some to guess that she may be back in Kenya. That has not been independently confirmed.
Before the controversy changed her life, Arunga was one of the most recognisable faces on Kenyan television. She anchored news at KTN, hosted programmes at Capital FM, was admitted to the Bar in 2009 and won the Best Teen TV Anchor award in 2008.
The name change marks another chapter in a long and difficult journey. The notice does not give a reason for the decision, but the timing and the legal finality of the move say plenty. Many Kenyans who once admired her on screen will now be watching to see what comes next.