[2014] KEHC 8032 (KLR)
The court found that the applicants had satisfied all statutory requirements for adoption under the Children.s Act, including being assessed and recommended by the relevant authorities. The child was abandoned and unclaimed, and the applicants had demonstrated the capacity to provide a stable and loving home. The...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2014] KEHC 8032 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: T G N; Applicant: J M M; Respondent: Baby D. K.
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nairobi (Milimani Law Courts)
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Adoption Cause 120 of 2013
- Procedural Posture
- Adoption Cause / Judgment
- Outcome
- adoption granted
- Judges
- DN Musyoka
- Legal Topics
- Adoption Procedure, Parental Rights, Child Welfare
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
T G N
Applicant
J M M
Applicant
Baby D. K.
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 all procedural safeguards and reports have been satisfied.
Ratio Decidendi
The court found that the applicants had satisfied all statutory requirements for adoption under the Children.s Act, including being assessed and recommended by the relevant authorities. The child was abandoned and unclaimed, and the applicants had demonstrated the capacity to provide a stable and loving home. The adoption was determined to be in the best interests of the child, who had bonded with the applicants and would benefit from a permanent family environment. The court emphasized that the adoption order would be final and binding, conferring all parental rights and obligations on the applicants, and granting the child the right to inherit from them.
Court Disposition
adoption granted
Orders
- The applicants, T G N and J M M, are allowed to adopt the child Baby D K, who shall hereafter be known as D K N.
- The child shall be presumed Kenyan by birth as he was found abandoned within Kenya.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
25 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MILIMANI
ADOPTION CAUSE NO. 120 OF 2013 (OS)
AND
IN THE MATTER OF THE CHILDREN’S ACT
(NO. 8 OF 2001)
AND
IN THE MATTER OF BABY D. K.
JUDGEMENT
The applicants, T G N and J M M, are Kenyan citizens. They are a married couple. They seek to adopt Baby D. K. Their originating summons is dated 1st May 2013.
The child in question was found abandoned within the Kisii Estate, Makongeni, Thika Town. The matter was reported at the Makongeni Police Post on 25th June 2007. The child was referred to the Thika District Hospital for medical check-up, and thereafter to the Abandoned Baby Centre at Dagoretti for care and protection. He was later committed to the institution by the Children’s Court, and it is from there that he was placed with the applicants on 14th April 2010. The police were not able to trace the biological parents of the child, and nobody came forward to claim him. He was presumed to have been born on 25th June 2007.
The child was freed for adoption by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya by their certificate of 4th October 2011.
To facilitate this adoption, the applicants have been assessed by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, the Director of Children Services and the guardian ad litem, H N. The three have compiled and filed their reports in court. That of the Director of Children Services is dated 3rd November 2013, while that of the guardian ad litemis dated 8th November 2013. The report by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya is dated 4th October 2011.
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 himself appears to have bonded well with them and he considers them to be his 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 she 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 am satisfied that all the legal requirements for a local adoption have been met, and I therefore make the following orders:-
That the applicants, T G N and J M M, are hereby allowed to adopt the child Baby D K, who shall hereafter be known D K N;
That the said child shall be presumed Kenyan by birth as he was found abandoned within Kenya;
That K M is hereby appointed legal guardian of the child in the event something untoward happens to the applicants;
That the Registrar-General is hereby directed to enter this adoption order in the adoption register; and
That the guardian ad litemis hereby discharged.
DATED, SIGNED and DELIVERED at NAIROBI this 4th DAY OF July 2014.
W. MUSYOKA
JUDGE
In the presence of ………………………advocate for the applicants