This archive report was first published on 17 July 2019.
On July 17, 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.
Justice Teresia Matheka held that children in disputed paternity cases can inherit their father's estate as dependants, rather than undergoing DNA tests, if there is evidence that the deceased had taken them as his own and was maintaining them prior to his death.
The ruling was made in a case where CW, an employee in the family, had 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 application, arguing that the children were seeking to inherit the estate as dependants under Section 29(b) of the Laws of Succession Act.
Justice Matheka rejected PN's application for a DNA test, stating that the children were not claiming the property as biological children of the deceased but as dependants.
However, the judge also found that CW had not established that she was a wife to the deceased and therefore could not be made a co-administrator of the estate.
