An ageing wealthy couple has been allowed by court to adopt their 12-year-old grandchild after their jobless daughter-in-law gave the child up for adoption following her boyfriend’s death.
The child’s mother, 31, gave birth in her teenage years before separating from her boyfriend to continue with her studies. The grandparents want to change the girl’s identity and have her registered as their daughter so that she can inherit their wealth directly in future and include her in their health insurance scheme.
They said they were desirous of adopting the child to secure her under permanent parental control, secure her future, and give her the same opportunities as their own children.
They also intend to change the child’s name, which she has been known by for the last 12 years, and apply for a new birth certificate indicating her new identity.
Court papers indicate that the boyfriend, codenamed AW, died in 2021 and the woman cannot cater for the girl’s needs. The woman, codenamed LNO in court papers, lives in Mombasa and is neither employed nor married.
Due to economic hardship caused by unemployment, she approached her in-laws and requested them to adopt the child as their own. She testified that the child was born in 2011 and the father was her boyfriend around 2010–11. After birth, she lived with the child briefly in Nairobi then took her to her in-laws in Eldoret when the girl turned eight months old, because she had to go to college.
She states that she sometimes stayed with the child, but on most occasions, the child lived with the grandparents, who are aged 56 and 64. Asked by court if she fully understood that by giving up the child for adoption she could not reverse the same, the woman confirmed that she was ready to give up all her rights over the child.
She stated that she did not have a job, hence cannot cater for the child. When asked what would happen if she got a job, she undertook that even then, she would not change her mind.
It was her testimony that she had discussed the matter with her family and parents and they all agreed to the adoption. LNO denied that she had been coerced and confirmed that she had signed the affidavit consenting to the adoption.
In a phone interview with the assistant director at the Children’s Office, LNO confirmed her consent to the adoption, maintaining she could not care for the child.
The grandparents told the court they are both farmers with an income of at least Sh200,000 and have tracts of land and rental properties. As such, they said they are financially and emotionally able to take care of the child.
They further said they have three surviving biological children aged 37, 34 and 31, and one of them lives in the US. The court heard that the siblings had no problem with the adoption.
The grandmother, 56, said she is a farmer and has been living with the child since 2012 when she was eight months old because the mother was still in school.
She said the child’s mother took her back in 2017 after completing college and stayed with her. However, after the demise of the child’s father in 2021, the mother returned the child to the in-laws. They have been with her since.
“I have read the report dated May 28, 2024, submitted by the Directorate of Children’s Services. The report states that the children’s officers visited and inspected the applicants’ home setting in Trans Nzoia County, whose environment they found to be child-friendly and conducive to the child’s mental, social and physical growth,” said Justice Wananda Anuro, allowing the adoption in a judgment delivered on January 24 in Eldoret.
“The report also returns a favourable assessment regarding the applicant’s financial ability, confirms the arrangement as one of kinship adoption and confirms that the child has been declared free for adoption.”
The court heard that the grandparents have always taken care of the child. The granny confirmed her wish to formally adopt the child and undertook to treat her as her own daughter.
When asked by the court about the family’s source of income, she responded that they have rental houses, that their farm gives them financial returns and their children send them sufficient funds.
She then revealed that it is the child’s biological mother, who, of her own volition, approached and requested them to adopt the child.
