Boy declines court-ordered 'bonding' with father

There was drama at the Kisumu law courts on Friday as a judge tried to temporarily reunite a man with his seven-year-old son.

The man, estranged from his wife, had not seen the child since 2016. He is in court to challenge the custody of the child with his mother.

A fully-packed magistrate court was moved to emotion as the child, unable to recognise his father, declined to go to him.

The court ordered that they spend at least two hours together before the mother takes him away as the case is heard.

It took Senior Resident Magistrate Stella Telewa's motherly persuasion to convince the boy that the stranger was his father. The shaken boy sat on the bench with his father but refused to move closer to him.

“The child can be handed over to the father right away and be brought back to the mother after two hours,” she ruled.

Even after ruling so, the boy still clung to his mother as they headed out of the court.

The man says he has been denied access to their son. The court ordered the child be produced in court so that his father can bond with him.

He wants to have “responsibility in the upbringing of our child”, an affidavit says.

The father was said to have last seen his child last in 2017.

The parents of the child were said to have parted ways.

The mother who did not want her whereabouts to be known by her husband fled to Nairobi with the child.

In the same court, a police woman working for the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) office and living at Car Wash area in Kisumu brought a matter of her lover who sired a child with her but refused to take responsibility.

She said since the child was born she has been providing for the child alone.

Never before had her lover, whom she dated since 2016, provided for the child now in Standard Three.

She presented the birth certificate of the child in court as required by the Magistrate to ascertain that the man was the father.

According to her, she wanted the man to fully take responsibility of the boy, including paying his school fees.

She said she needed the assistance of the court in the matter as she would take the rest of the responsibilities.