Child support: Nowhere to hide for deadbeat fathers
A proposed law will make it harder for men who sire children out of wedlock to escape parental responsibility.
The Children Bill 2021 vests responsibility to both parents at the outset and seeks to repeal the Children Act of 2001, which states that parental duty in the first instance lies with the mother.
“Where a child’s father and mother were not married to each other at the time of the child’s birth, and did not subsequently get married to each other, both the mother and the father shall have parental responsibility at the first instance,” states the Bill set to be introduced in the National Assembly.
If enacted, this provision will replace Section 24(3) of the Act that stipulates where the parents are not married only “the mother shall have parental responsibility at the first instance.”
Personal relations
The Bill also provides that every child separated from one or both parents shall have the right to maintain personal relations and direct contact with them, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that such contact is not in the best interest of the child.
If passed, the Bill will be a huge relief to mothers who are oftentimes left to care for the children on their own as the fathers wander away.
Under the current law, it takes a court order or a mutual agreement between the parties for the father to assume parental responsibility, a requirement deadbeat fathers have exploited to escape their duties.
It’s a loophole that High Court Judge Mumbi Ngugi sought to seal in a judgment in 2013 when she declared Section 24(3) of the Children Act unconstitutional as it vests parental responsibility on the mother in the first instance.
She argued that it contravened Article 53(1) of the Constitution that provides “every child has the right to parental care and protection, which includes equal responsibility of the mother and father to provide for the child, whether they are married to each other or not”.
In the case, a security guard had been sued by his ex-lover for failure to provide for two children they had together while they cohabited and two others she had from a previous relationship.
Step-children
Justice Ngugi ruled that the man was obligated to provide for the step-children too.
The Bill also targets single mothers who block fathers from having a relationship with their children.
It has handed men a major boost as they will now have unlimited access to their children born out of wedlock without necessarily requiring a court order. This will cure numerous stories of toxic women who normally block men from seeing or bonding with their children.
Any person who hinders another party from accessing the child commits an offence and shall upon conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding Sh500,000, or both.
Any person who breaches parental responsibility shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding a year or to a fine of Sh500,000.
Residential address
Should the party having custody of the child change his or her residential address, he or she is obligated to inform the other, failure to do so will hand them a one-year term or a fine not exceeding Sh200,000, or both.
This provision is meant to cure incidents where either the father or the mother relocates to an unknown place in order to block the other party from visiting the child.
The Bill also provides clear guidelines on how parents who are not married will have equal responsibility for the wellbeing of the child.
It specifies the scope of a parental responsibility agreement to include how the child or children shall spend time with each parent and how the parents shall make joint decisions on matters such as religious upbringing, visitation schedule, holiday and school break schedule, and health services.
It also provides that every child separated from one or both parents shall have the right to maintain personal relations and direct contact with them regularly, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that such contact is not in the best interest of the child. BY DAILY NATION
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