This archive report was first published on 15 July 2019.
On July 15, 2019, the High Court made a significant ruling in a 19-year-old succession dispute between two co-wives, CW and PN, over the estate of a deceased man.
According to the ruling, children whose paternity is disputed will no longer need to undergo DNA tests to be included as beneficiaries of an estate. Instead, they can seek to inherit as dependants under Section 29 of the Laws of Succession Act.
The ruling comes amid numerous family conflicts where parties attempt to exclude some children from inheriting their father's estate on disputed paternity.
Justice Teresia Matheka held that such children have a stake in the estate if there is evidence the deceased had taken them as his own and was maintaining them immediately before his death.
The case involved CW, who was an employee in the family before she got into a love affair with the deceased, who died in 1999. CW wanted to be made a joint administrator to the deceased's estate and her three children to be considered as dependants in the distribution of property.
PN, on the other hand, wanted an order compelling the three children to undergo a DNA test to ascertain if they were fathered by the deceased. However, CW opposed the DNA test application, arguing that her children were coming in as dependants of the estate under Section 29(b) of the Laws of Succession Act.
She produced copies of the children's national identity cards as evidence, stating, 'It is not necessary to prove paternity because the three children are seeking to inherit the deceased's estate as dependants.'
