Woman loses claim for child support as suit dismissed

By Patrick Kibet

Nakuru, Kenya: A middle-aged woman lost her bid to have a Nakuru court compel a senior government pharmacist to pay for child maintenance after the court dismissed her paternity suit.

Senior Resident Magistrate Judicaster Nthuku dismissed evidence adduced by Beatrice Wanja and ruled that the DNA test by the Government Chemist was not reliable.

Dr John Ndegwa, who denied fathering a child with Wanja, has endured a long protracted court battle.

Nthuku noted that Henry Kiptoo from the Government Chemist, in his evidence acknowledged that there were instances where the results from the lab had been tampered with.

However, while bringing the case to a close, Nthuku said that it would be dangerous to rely on the results from the Government Chemist since there was a possibility the samples were tampered with.

In her ruling, Nthuku noted that the Sh54,000 for maintenance claimed by Wanja was excessive and added that if the case was successful, the court would have ordered for Sh25,000 to be shared equally.

The case started afresh this year before Nthuku after another magistrate Gerald Mutiso disqualified himself when he was accused of bias by one of the parties.

Wanja sued Dr Ndegwa in 2011 while asking the court to compel the pharmacist to pay child maintenance to the tune of Sh54,000 per month.

Ndegwa claimed that DNA results from the Government Chemist had been altered.