In re M (Baby) [2017] KEHC 3249 (KLR)

REPUBLIC OF KENYA

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT NAIROBI

(FAMILY DIVISION)

ADOPTION CAUSE NO. 14 OF 2015

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION FOR ADOPTION OF BABY M akaBABY S

JUDGEMENT

1. The applicant, J N G, is a Kenyan citizen. She is single, having never married. She seeks to adopt Baby M alias S. Her Originating Summons is dated 19th January 2015.

2. The child in question was found abandoned on 14th October 2010 at [particulars withheld] area of Nairobi by good Samaritans, who reported the matter to the Kamukunji Police Station. The child was admitted at the Happy Life Children’s Centre for care and protection. He was later committed to that institution by the Nairobi Children’s Court. The police were unable to trace his relatives. The child was freed for adoption by the KKPI Adoption Society by their certificate number [particulars withheld] of 25th September 2013. He was placed with the applicant on 29th October 2013.

3. To facilitate this adoption, the applicants have been assessed by the KKPI Adoption Society, the Director of Children Services and the guardian ad litem, J W K. The three have compiled and filed their reports in court. That of the Director of Children Services is dated 23rd November 2016, while that of the guardian ad litemis dated 17th January 2017. There are two reports by the KKPI Adoption Society, both undated, filed herein on 12th March 2015 and 21st September 2017. All these reports are favourable and recommend the proposed adoption. The applicant has demonstrated that she has the financial and emotional capability and capacity to take care of the child. The child himself appears to have bonded well with her and he considers her to be his mother.

4. In the opinion of this court it would be in the best interests of the child that he is adopted by the applicant. The applicant 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 applicant shall assume all parental rights and duties of the biological parent in respect of the adopted child; she shall treat the adopted child as if he was born to her. The applicant has 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 her property. The applicant cannot give up the child owing to any subsequent unforeseen behaviour or other changes in the child.

5. I note that this is a case of a sole female applicant seeking to adopt a male child. I am cognisant of the provisions of section 159(2) of the Children Act, Cap 141, Laws of Kenya, which require me, before I allow a sole female applicant to adopt a male child, to be satisfied that there are special circumstances that justify the order. My attention has been brought to the guidelines for special circumstances, in such cases as the present, that were prepared by the Adoption Committee and were communicated to the court through a letter dated 13th January 2010 addressed to the Registrar of the High Court. One of the considerations being that the applicant is the only person available to adopt the child.

6. According to the undated report of the KKPI Adoption Society filed herein on 21st September 2017, following my ruling dated 19th May 2017, where I had stated that there was no material before me pointing to any special circumstances in this particular case, the subject child had been at the home since September 2010 and no male person or a married couple came forward to express an interest in adopting the said child before the present applicant presented herself. The adoption agency therefore states that the circumstances were special. I am satisfied by that explanation that it would not be in the best interest of the child for him to remain at the institution, and that it would be best that he is committed to the parentage of the present applicant.

7. I am satisfied that all the legal requirements for a local adoption have been met, and I therefore make the following orders:-

(a)That the applicant, JNG, is hereby allowed to adopt the child Baby M alias S, who shall hereafter be known as PEG;

(b)That the said child is hereby declared to be Kenyan by birth; it shall be presumed that he was born on 3rd July 2009;

(c)That SWG is hereby appointed legal guardian of the child in the event something untoward happens to the applicant; and

(d)That the Registrar-General is hereby directed to enter this adoption order in the adoption register; and

(e)That the guardian ad litemis hereby discharged.

DATED, SIGNED and DELIVERED at NAIROBI this 6TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2017.

W. MUSYOKA

JUDGE