Ex-girlfriend wants policeman to surrender 80 per cent of his salary

A police officer's former girlfriend wants him to pay more than three quarters of his salary to maintain a child born three months after they separated.

Halima Arif wants the court to order Almas Said Mangi to pay her Sh15,000 for food and Sh3,000 for medical and other expenses per month to maintain a boy she claims he sired nine years ago. The money she is demanding comes to about Sh18,433.

But Mangi, who says he earns Sh23,364 per month, denies being the boy's biological father, saying he last saw the child one month after birth.

He says requests to Halima to accompany him to hospital for a DNA test to establish if the child is his have been turned down.

But Halima says the DNA test has already been done, and the results indicate the child is Mangi's.

The officet pleaded that attaching his salary would drive him into debt.

"The attachment ordered by the court is taking Sh18,433 out of Sh23,364 I earn as a net salary and as such I have to survive by borrowing money for food, transport and school fees for my child," he says.

DNA TEST

Mangi accuses Halima of not honouring scheduled meetings for a DNA test.

"Despite travelling from Nairobi on several occasions and offering to foot the bill of the DNA test, Halima has refused to accompany me for a DNA test and always fails to appear at the appointed time whenever she agrees to meet me," he said.

He claims that his ex-girlfriend is already married and wonders why she decided to sue him after seven years.

"The DNA issue is paramount and the court will note that the child's name on the birth certificate differs from one in the suit," he said.

Mangi questioned why he should risk his life in the police service and end up earning 22 per cent of his salary while a child he is not certain is his takes 78 per cent.

"I engage heavily in security work and my seniors are keen to know how I will be surviving without a salary. Ordinarily, the assumption is that an officer who is able to survive without a salary is engaged in crime, and my employment may therefore be jeopardised," he said.

He also questions why the boy's birth certificate bears his name as the father and yet he did not give consent to the issuing office.

He argues that for a parent's name to appear on a child's birth certificate, they must sign on the notification of birth and provide an ID copy.

Halima, in her affidavit, says Mangi is the biological father of the boy who was born on January 24, 2007.

She says she separated with Mangi in April 2007 and accuses him of refusing to provide for the boy.