[2013] KEHC 6938 (KLR)
The court found that the applicants fulfilled all statutory requirements for adoption under the Children’s Act. The child, having been abandoned and declared free for adoption, was eligible. The applicants demonstrated the capacity to provide for the child’s welfare, and all statutory reports were favorable. The...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2013] KEHC 6938 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: D W C; Applicant: D M W; Respondent: Baby M (to be known as M W W)
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nairobi (Milimani Law Courts)
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Adoption Cause 192 of 2013
- Procedural Posture
- Adoption Cause / Judgment
- Outcome
- adoption granted
- Judges
- DN Musyoka
- Legal Topics
- Adoption Procedure, Best Interests of Child, Parental Rights, Child Abandonment
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
D W C
Applicant
D M W
Applicant
Baby M (to be known as M W W)
Respondent
Procedural Posture
Adoption Cause / Judgment
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the applicants meet the legal requirements for adoption under the Children’s Act.
- 2 Whether the adoption is in the best interests of the child.
- 3 Whether the child is eligible for adoption given her abandonment and citizenship status.
Ratio Decidendi
The court found that the applicants fulfilled all statutory requirements for adoption under the Children’s Act. The child, having been abandoned and declared free for adoption, was eligible. The applicants demonstrated the capacity to provide for the child’s welfare, and all statutory reports were favorable. The court determined that adoption was in the best interests of the child, ensuring her right to family, care, and inheritance. The applicants were made aware of the finality of the adoption order and the responsibilities it entails. The court also appointed legal guardians for the child in the event of misfortune befalling the applicants during the child’s minority. The adoption was...
Court Disposition
adoption granted
Orders
- The applicants D W C and D M W are permitted to adopt Baby M, who shall be known as M W W.
- D K K and C N L are appointed as legal guardians of the child should misfortune befall the applicants during the child’s minority.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
19 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MILIMANI
ADOPTION CAUSE NO.192 OF 2011 (OS)
AND
IN THE MATTER OF THE CHILDREN’S ACT (NO. 8 OF 2001)
AND
IN THE MATTER OF BABY M
JUDGEMENT
The applicants, D W C and D M W, are Kenyan citizens. They are a married couple. By their Originating Summons dated 11th October 2011 they seek to a female child called Baby M.
The subject child, Baby M, was abandoned a day after delivery at Huruma in Nairobi. She was found by a Good Samaritan who reported the matter at the Huruma Police Post on 12th January 2009. It is presumed that the child was born on 10th January 2009. She was admitted at the Missionaries of Charity at Huruma on the very day she was found, and was later to be formally committed there by the Children’s Court. She was placed with the applicants on 11th May 2010 for the bonding period.
This adoption is being arranged through the Kenya Children’s Homes adoption agency. The said adoption agency declared the child free for adoption through their certificate of 13th April 2010.
To facilitate this adoption, the applicants have been assessed by the Kenya Children’s Homes adoption agency, the guardian ad litem, M W N and the Director of Children Services. All three have compiled and filed their reports in court. The report by the Director of Children Services dated 26th March 2013, while that by Kenya Children’s Homes is dated 27th September 2011. The report of the guardian ad litem is dated 20th September 2013.
All these reports are favourable and recommend the proposed adoption. The applicants have demonstrated that they have the financial and emotional capability and capacity to take care of the child. The child appears to have bonded well with them and she considers them to be her parents.
In the opinion of this court it would be in the best interests of the child that she is adopted by the applicants. The applicants will be able to provide a home and a family for the child to grow up in and thereafter be a useful member of the family. Consequently, the applicants shall assume all parental rights and duties of the biological parents in respect of the adopted child; they shall treat the adopted child as if he was born to them. The applicants have been made aware that once the adoption order is made it shall be final and binding during the lifetime of the child and that the child shall have the right to inherit their property. The applicant cannot give up the child owing to any subsequent unforeseen behaviour or other changes in the child.
I find that the application before me has merit and I hereby permit the applicants, D W C and D M W, to adopt Baby M be known hereafter as M W W. I appoint D K K and C N L the child’s legal guardian should misfortune befall the applicants during the child’s minority. I direct the Registrar-General to enter this adoption order in the adoption register. The guardian ad litemis hereby discharged.
The child was found abandoned at Huruma in Nairobi, it shall be presumed that she was born Kenyan and is entitled to all the rights that accrue to Kenyan citizens under the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act..
DATED, SIGNED and DELIVERED at NAIROBI this 19th DAY OF December, 2013.
W. M. MUSYOKA
JUDGE