The man, who was born in 1984, holds on to a tale by his mother that the man he has now sued for recognition in his adult life is his father.
The court rejected the man’s prayer to force his alleged father to undergo a DNA test in the interim. However, his quest for the truth is not lost as the court directed that the disputed facts about his roots will be tested during a full hearing and he will know whether he will have his alleged father’s name or remain without it.
“While it is true that the truth and the establishment of the truth would serve justice, in seeking to establish the truth, there must be a prima facie (on the face of it) case. This is because it is not just the truth for the applicant, but the truth for the respondent as well. Hence the need for that delicate balance to the peculiarity of circumstances of this case. It is only fair that the applicant gets the opportunity to establish the facts at the hearing and for the disputed facts to be tested,” Justice Mumbua Matheka ruled. The man, code-named FKK, was born on August 30, 1984. His mother, code-named MCR, told him that he was a fruit of a four-year relationship with a man identified as DKC.
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To support her son’s case filed by Gordon, Ogola, Kipkoech & Company Advocates, the woman swore an affidavit claiming she met her son’s alleged father while they were working at Kabarnet. She worked for the then Postal Corporation and later for Kenya Industrial Estates.
According to the woman, in 1984, when she was pregnant with FKK, they parted ways and she then moved back to her parents’ home in Bureti where FKK was born. She told the court that when she informed him, he disputed the paternity.
She alleged that he also refused to be in the minor’s certificate of birth as at that time both parents were required to make a joint application.
According to MCR, that’s why her son could not have been legally named after DKC.
Court record reads that sometime in 2013, MCR approached her son’s guardian, one PMM and who agreed to have his name in FKK’s certificate. She explained that despite the guardian’s act of goodwill, her son’s identity remains in limbo, disowned by his biological father.
Fatherly love
According to her, she would like to settle the paternity issue once and for all.
FKK’s lawyers first wrote to DKC on July 5, 2018 asking him to own up and correct the past.
The law firm detailed the ridicule he went through as a boy among his peers, denial of a father to give fatherly love and lack of recognition as a son, and the effects on him as an adult. The law firm cautioned the man that they would drag him to court in the event he did not heed to the client’s demand.
DKC denied ever having a relationship with the woman. With FKK reaching the end of that path, he filed a court case. He argues that DKC holds information about his paternity which can only be obtained if a DNA is conducted, and it is the only way his identity can be corrected.
