In re ME (Baby) [2020] KEHC 9919 (KLR)

REPUBLIC OF KENYA

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT NAIROBI

FAMILY DIVISION

ADOPTION CAUSE NO. 129 OF 2019 (OS)

IN THE MATTER OF THE CHILDREN ACT, 2001

AND

IN THE MATTER OF BABY M.E.

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION FOR ADOPTION  BY

JKG..........................................1ST APPLICANT

HWK.......................................2ND APPLICANT

JUDGMENT

1. The applicants JKG and HWK are a Kenyan couple aged 50 and 41, respectively. The 1st applicant is a self-employed architect while the 2nd applicant is a business lady. They married in church on 26th August 2006. They have four biological children. On 3rd October 2019 they filed this originating summons seeking to adopt Baby M.E.

2. Baby M.E. was born on 8th April 2012 at Pumwani Maternity Hospital and abandoned at the Hospital by his mother. The matter was reported at Shauri Moyo Police Station vide OB No. XX. The baby was committed to Hope House Babies’ Home for a period of three years by the Nairobi Children’s Court via Protection and Care Case No. XX of 2013. Two letters from the Police dated 27th June 2012 and 12th August 2013 confirmed that that matter was reported and investigations to trace the mother of the child had borne no fruits. No one had laid claim to the child. The child was declared free for adoption on 25th October 2013 vide Certificate No. XX by the Kenyans to Kenya Peace Initiative Adoption Society. The child was placed with the applicants on 14th November 2013 for bonding.

3. On 21st November 2019 the court appointed WK as the guardian ad litem to the child and ordered her and the Director of Children Services to within 45 days prepare and file the requisite reports after carrying out a social inquiry on the applicants to determine their suitability to adopt the child. The two reports were filed each recommending the applicants to be allowed to adopt the child. The reports found that the applicants were socially, emotionally and financially stable and suitable to adopt the child. It was also found that the child and the applicants had bonded well.

4. The court finds that it is in the best interest of the child to be adopted by the applicants. The applicants have demonstrated their ability to provide a conducive home and family environment in which the child will grow and develop. They will assume all parental rights and obligations of the biological parents of the child once adopted, and shall treat him as if he was born to them. They have been made aware that once the adoption order is made, it shall be final and binding during the lifetime of the child. The child shall have the right to inherit their property. The applicants shall not be able to give up the child owing to any subsequent unforeseen behaviour or other changes in the child. This court notes that the child was abandoned and therefore the consent of the mother is dispensed with.

5. Having been satisfied that all the legal requirements for a local adoption under the Children Act have been met, the following orders shall issue:-

a) the applicants JKG and HWK are hereby allowed to adopt Baby M.E.;

b) Baby M.E. shall henceforth be known as KGK;

c) the child shall be presumed to be Kenyan having been born in Pumwani Hospital in Kenya to a Kenyan woman;

d) MOM is hereby appointed to be the child’s legal guardian in the event of death or incapacity of the applicants before he is of full age and fully self-reliant;

e) the Registrar-General is directed to enter this adoption in the Adopted Children Register; and

f) the guardian ad litem is hereby discharged.

DATED, DELIVERED AND SIGNED AT NAIROBI THIS 16TH JULY 2020

A.O. MUCHELULE

JUDGE