Two men have dragged an assistant chief to court seeking Sh4 million in a battle over a name on a birth certificate.
In their case filed before the High Court in Nairobi, Bernard Karino and Chupkel ole Ndaiyo accuse Samson Salau of scoring an unfair goal in a game where he was a player and the referee.
They accuse him of misleading the registrar of births and deaths that he was Karino’s father. Salau is an assistant chief in Narok.
In the case, Karino alleged that Salau is not his father, but he erroneously bears his name on the birth certificate that recognises the accused as his father.
“The respondent in gross abuse of his powers as an assistant chief inserted his name instead of that of the second petitioner as the first petitioner thereby denying him paternity of the first petitioner,” the case filed before High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye reads in part.
Karino said that he was born in 2000 in a love episode between Ndaiyo and his mother Kiraita Sipiri. However, he claimed that ambers of love died 13 years later, and the two parted ways.
Justice Mwamuye heard that thereafter, Ndaiyo and Kiraita moved on with their lives, with the woman allegedly ending up dating Salau.
According to Karino, Ndaiyo and Kiraita applied to have his birth certificate. He alleges that this is where the drama started.
“When my parents visited the county civil registration office, they were informed that due to the delay in applying for registration, the application had to be made through our area assistant chief,” claimed Karino.
The 24-year-old told the court that Salau instead had his name on the birth certificate. He stated that the net effect of that is he has been missing bursaries applied by Ndaiyo among many other things due to the name.
“The actions of the respondent also caused me to be deprived of rights and benefits that would accrue to me from my rightful father including but not limited to inheritance. Because of the respondent’s actions, I have been the subject to ridicule by peers due to my true paternity being omitted in my birth certificate,” he claimed.
The court heard that the registration happened in 2015.
Further, Karino says his father Ndaiyo is being ridiculed and humiliated by friends as his son is named after another man.
According to him, this reality is a pain that is consistent in their lives adding that his siblings take him as a ‘lost’ person.
“The actions of the respondent herein were aimed at depriving me of human dignity and familial relations with my father, the second petitioner. My siblings treat me with hatred and have resorted to shunning me and labelling me a ‘stray’ whenever my father takes me home,” said Karino.
Ndaiyo also narrated his story before court. He recounted how Kiraita left him for Salau in 2013 when she began dating the administrator.
The man said that he had suffered mental anguish and trauma as he was allegedly denied identity as Karino’s father.
Ndaiyo and Karino urged the court to find that Salau had violated the Constitution. At the same time, they asked the judge to find that the assistant chief had violated their rights.
They also sought Sh4 million in compensation.
Justice Mwamuye directed that they should serve the court documents to Salau and appear for a mention on September 18, 2024.
