Who said a child must have a masculine family name?

Section 11 of Children’s Act says a child shall have a right to a name and nationality.

Rose Mbanya, a family lawyer, further quotes Section 24 where the law gives no preference for surnames to come from either sexes.

"Neither the mother nor the father shall have a superior right or claim against the other in exercise of parental responsibility," the law says.

Hence, Rose concludes, it wouldn’t be an illegal act if a mother gave her children her name as surname.

In almost every other community in Kenya – except for the Agikuyu – surnames are male.

“It is all about cultural practices and ethics. The Agikuyu are matriarchal in nature. The woman is powerful. It is actually believed that the woman works the hardest to feed her children,” says Prof Halimu Shauri, a sociologist at Pwani University.

In matriarchal societies, he adds, leadership of the family is tethered to provision and ownership of property. And if the woman is in charge of property, then she is the overall head.

In other cultures (where the majority fall) the society is patriarchal and identity is insisted upon.

“In patriarchal societies identity is greatly valued such that one can draw a perfect family tree just by using surnames,” Prof Shauri says.

In patriarchal societies a child (especially a boy), will be named after their father regardless of his presence in the child’s life.

In a few instances, the child would be given the grandfather’s name for surname.

In patriarchal societies, identity plays a central role in the assigning of surnames.

President Barrack Obama documents in his book ‘Dreams From my Father’ how the connection between him and his father, however frail, was always part of his identity. In spite of his father’s absence he still carried his name throughout his life.