Man losses bid to block wife from changing children names, to interact with them online

A man has lost a case in the High Court seeking to block his former wife from changing the names of their children.

Justice Pauline Nyamweya dismissed the case filed by AMA against the Registrar of Persons and his former wife NSY.

It also emerged that the man had been ordered by the Children's Court to access his children via video call.

He had sought custody of the two minors, who went with their mother to Israel, but the lower court only allowed him to interact with them online.

The judge noted that since the man had appealed the decision on custody, the issue of changing names would also be best addressed in that case rather than the one he had filed before her.

The two divorced in 2013 and in 2016, the woman’s lawyer gazetted the minors’ changed names.

AMA argued in court that he was not consulted, adding that he had a right as a parent to be asked whether their names should be changed or not.

After the change of names, the two children were given passports in their new names and they left for Israel.

But the man said he was also not informed when they left the country. He claimed he was apprehensive about their safety and that they might be indoctrinated.

“A child’s best interests are paramount in every matter concerning a child, and that the identity and personality of the minors herein are at stake as they have been introduced to another father, another religion, and have been taken out of jurisdiction and given new names. That the net effect of these actions is that the minors will develop an identity crisis,” he argued.

In reply, AMA told the court that the man had defied Children's Court orders that required him to pay Sh20,000 every month for their upkeep from 2015.

“Applicant has not shown any interest in the day-to-day upbringing of the minors and in fact has even sought to have them placed in the custody of a third party through various applications in the lower court,” AMA argued.

The woman said she recently married an Israeli man and was intending to spend the rest of her life with him.

She said her ex-husband was only out to make her life and that of their children miserable.