A court in Kisumu has permitted a father to remove his name from the birth certificate of a ‘9-year-old boy’ following DNA tests that confirmed he was not the child’s biological father.
The case gained public attention after being reported by NTV. The man approached the court with suspicions about his paternity, which were validated by the DNA tests.
The judge ordered the Kisumu birth and death registration office to amend the child’s birth certificate by removing the man’s name.
The judge stated that the information recorded on the birth certificate dated April 27, 2023, indicating the man as the father of the child, identified as J.M.O., was incorrect and misleading.
“I approve the application dated November 16, 2023, to the extent that the applicant’s name, F.O.A., listed as the father of the child J.M.O. on Birth Certificate Number xxx, be deleted,” the judge declared.
F.O.A. acknowledged that he had allowed his name to be used on the birth certificate as the father of the child, in accordance with section 12 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act.
However, he denied adopting the child, having conducted a private DNA test. A second, court-ordered test conducted by a government chemist in Kisumu confirmed that he was not the child’s biological father.
The man explained that he had been in a romantic relationship with the child’s mother in 2014 when she became pregnant. Believing he was the father, he initially supported the mother. However, as doubts arose, he ceased providing support, suspecting that the child was not his.
