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Recently, High Court in Kiambu awarded a man custody of two minors, aged 12 and 11 after their mother disowned them.
In the judgement delivered by Justice Mary Kasango, the court noted that the mother undisputedly surrendered the minors to their father.
“In this case, the uncontroverted evidence is that the mother surrendered custody of the children to the father and the father stated, and it was not denied, that the mother in surrendering them to their father told the children she was no longer their mother,” said Justice Kasango.
The mother said she surrendered custody of the children following a motor vehicle accident which she was involved in on April 23, 2019.
“The accident occurred at 4.30 hours of the morning of 23rd April 2019. Where was the mother driving to or from that hour when she had young children to care for? The father in his pleadings and affidavit evidence stated that the mother was drunk when the accident occurred. The mother did not respond to that allegation,” noted the court.
The court questioned why the woman surrendered custody of young children to their father and willingly signed an agreement granting the father sole custody.
The court further noted that although the norm in such cases is that custody of young children should be granted to the mother, it needs to be borne in mind that custody will not be granted where such a mother will not contribute to the child’s welfare. In short, deadbeat mums should not get access to their children. But are they even interested?
As is the case of Beryl (not her real name), who lived somewhere in the wild side of Nairobi, raising a child was just not in her cards.
After getting a baby while still very young and in the fast lane, Beryl decided to take the little one back home to the care of her grandmother, requesting her to take care of it with the pretence that the baby would interfere with her work. Claiming that it was expensive to hire a nanny in Nairobi and that she was going to support her mum in raising the baby.
In the real sense, Beryl wanted a childless city life without the burden of a child hindering her chase for the city’s bliss. The presence of a baby in her city life would have impeded the pursuit of young and rich men. Most men in Nairobi get slippery and ultimately slip away when they learn that a woman has a child from a previous relationship.
