How to catch cheating wives in three days

Mpango wa kando, uniquely Kenyan as nyama choma, kitu kidogo and 'overspeeding,' is causing an increasing number of men to secretly resort to DNA testing to prove the paternity of their children.

A good example is Tony Muhindi.

His quest to determine his daughter's paternity two years ago gave him the idea to come up with a way of testing DNA at home. An idea that blossomed into a thriving business.

"It was painful. I was involved with a woman who was nothing but bad news. She would lie to my daughter that I was not her father. At some point, I believed it because she was sleeping around. That is how I ended up doing my research and found the easy HomeDNA testing kit," Muhindi told The Nairobian.

Determining his child's paternity was easy for him since he was in the USA at the time.

"It was easy to collect samples for the DNA since I was with the baby most of the time. That was about two years ago," Muhindi reveals.

In June 2014, he decided to turn paternity testing into a business.

"I knew there was a business opportunity here. I was inspired by the story of three sisters whose mother had refused to disclose the identity of their father in Kenya. It was sad. It occurred to me that helping people like the sisters would really be fulfilling and beneficial," he says.

His DIY Solutions (Do It Yourself Solutions) company sells HomeDNA kits to help suspicious parents determine the DNA of their children.

The kits are ordered online via DIY's Facebook page and delivered by G4S nationwide.

Included in the kit is a set of full-colour, illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions on how to collect DNA samples.

The samples are then delivered in sealed envelopes to any G4S collection point nationwide and sent to an accredited laboratory in the USA for testing.

"I have used the kit myself on three occasions to compare the DNA profiles of myself and those of my children," he says.

Either parent can do the DNA testing with or without the other's. The children are most of the time unaware of what is going on and are considered willing participants.

However, according to Muhindi, in cases where the results are to be legally binding or admissible in court, a chain of custody procedures must be adhered to.

This involves Chain of Custody DNA Banking, where DNA samples are collected and stored by certified professionals to ensure that courts and other government agencies will consider the results of any future DNA testing on the stored DNA.

This, however, does not end here. A client can have their DNA results banked for a period not exceeding 15 years and have the information retrieved in case of an anticipated dispute in the family in future.

DNA profiling and banking for 15 years would cost the client an extra Sh30,419 ($300).

If one does not need a DNA test for a legal matter — but just needs a paternity test strictly for personal knowledge, the HomeDNA Test would be an option.