In re J alias J E K alias E K (Baby) [2017] KEHC 2706 (KLR)

REPUBLIC OF KENYA

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA

AT KERICHO

ADOPTION CAUSE NO.6 OF 2016

IN THE MATER OF THE CHILDREN ACT (ACT NO.8 OF 2001)

AND

IN THE MATTER OF BABY J alias J E K aliasE K (CHILD)

JUDGMENT

1. The applicants, J K S and M C S have filed the application dated 22nd March 2016 seeking to be authorized to adopt the male child currently identified and known as childJ aliasJ E K alias E K.

2. The applicants are husband and wife.  They were married under Kipsigis customary law in 1995.  The 1st applicant, J K S, is 43 years old.  He was born on 1st January 1974.  The 2nd applicant, M C S, was born in 1977 and is now forty years old.  The 1st applicant is a farmer while the 2nd applicant runs a milk-selling business and is also engaged in farming.  They have one biological child a daughter, born on 4th September 2002.

3. The child in respect of whom this application relates is Baby J alias J E K alias E K.  According to documents from Kenya Children’s Homes Adoption Society filed with the application, the child was born on 17th January 2014 to one I S at the Mbagathi District Hospital.  He was abandoned at the hospital on the same day, and was admitted to the new born unit. The matter was reported to the Kenyatta Hospital Police Post on 27th February 2014 vide occurrence book No.[Particulars withheld].  The child was admitted at the Thomas Barnado House on 28th February 2014.

4. Through Care and Protection Case No. 236 of 2014, the child was committed to the Thomas Barnado House by the Children’s Court, Nairobi, on 20th August 2014.  Since the report of the abandonment of the child was made to the police on 27th February 2014, no-one has ever gone to claim him. He was thus declared free for adoption by the Kenya Children’s Homes Adoption Society on 15th October 2014 and a freeing certificate issued pursuant to section 156 (1) of the Children Act.  He was placed with the applicants on 11th December 2014.

5. On 23rd September 2016 D K M was appointed Guardian ad Litem in respect of the child.  He has filed a report which is undated but was filed in court on 24th March 2017.  In the said report, Mr. M indicates that he has been visiting the applicants on weekends at their home.  He observes that the child has been doing well, and is receiving all basic needs.  The child has also bonded well with the prospective adoptive parents and sister, and has grown very fond of them.  In his view, the child is in good hands, is well cared for and is in good health.  He urges the court to grant the adoption orders.

6. The Director, Children Services, was directed on 23rd September 2016 to investigate and file a report on the suitability of the applicants to adopt the child. The Sub-County Children Officer, Sotik, filed a report dated 22nd August 2017 which noted that the applicants have the means to take care of the child and have a stable home and marriage. The report recommended that the applicants be allowed to adopt the child, who has bonded well with them.

7. Having read and considered the application, the documents in support, and the report of the Guardian ad Litem and the Children Officer, I am satisfied that it is in the best interests  of the child J alias J E K alias E K that the applicants be allowed to adopt him.  The child is declared a citizen of Kenya and is renamed E K. His date of birth is 17th January 2014.

8. S C E and W C S, the brother and sister in law of the 1st applicant, are hereby appointed guardians of the child should any misfortune befall the applicants.

9. The Registrar General is directed to make the appropriate entries in the Adopted Children Register, while the Registrar of Births is directed to issue a birth certificate in respect of the child.

10. The Guardian ad Litem is hereby discharged.

Dated Delivered and Signed at Kericho this 6th day of October, 2017.

MUMBI NGUGI

JUDGE