Paternity Cases in Kenya: The High Court in Mombasa has ordered that a man be paid Sh. 700,000 compensation after he found out that he was not the biological father of his former wife’s child.
According to a report that appeared in the Daily Nation, this amount will serve as damages for the mental anguish, stress and embarrassment that the man sustained.
“The cash award is also supposed cater for Sh. 300,000 that the man, referred to in court documents as Mr SVK, spent taking care of the child’s mother during pregnancy and for hospital delivery costs. The Sh. 700,000 sum awarded will be paid by the child’s actual biological father, referred to in court documents as Mr NTA,” the report said.
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This decision was delivered by Justice Eric Ogola and is expected to elicit mixed reactions.
In the judgment, the court said that Mr SVK was an honourable man who took his wife, Ms RNL, to give birth in a good hospital and all paid the bills. “For all his troubles, the first respondent (Mr SVK) is entitled to compensation for the expenses he incurred in caring for the mother and the baby,” Justice Ogola ruled.
Justice Ogola further directed that even though he had not told the court the equivalent amount of the torture that this former wife’s revelation caused him, he qualified for compensation because he had taken care of both the wife and her child.
“Mr SVK had filed a cross petition against a suit filed by Mr NTA, the biological father who sought to have the child’s birth certificate rectified and read his name (NTA) instead of Mr SVK. In his cross petition, Mr SVK had told the court that he was the husband of Ms RNL and were living together as husband and wife when out of their co-habitation, a baby girl was born in October 2015,” the report in the Daily Nation said.
Justice Ogola also ordered the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Mombasa to have the minor’s birth certificate rectified to read Mr NTA as the father instead of Mr SVK.
