Court to rule on John Keen’s parentage case Friday

The High Court will on Friday make a ruling to determine whether a woman claiming to be a daughter of former assistant minister John Keen carries his DNA.

Ms Ruby Karimi, in her application, seeks an order for a DNA test to be conducted on the retired politician, whom she accuses of neglecting her.

She has also filed a petition at the court outlining the circumstances of her alleged daughter-father relationship with Mr Keen, demanding compensation and that he recognises her.

Mr Keen has dismissed the parentage claim, stating that both Ms Karimi and her mother, Ms Janet Ekumbo, are strangers to him. He accuses the woman of trying to extort money from him.

“I am not the applicant’s biological father as alleged or at all and never at one time have I recognised her as my child,” he says in his replying affidavit.

Ms Karimi’s lawyer requested the court to rely on Ms Ekumbo’s statement, which indicates that Ms Karimi is Mr Keen’s daughter.

Ms Karimi, 31, claims she was born in July 1981 of a union between Mr Keen and Ms Ekumbo.

She claims she was separated from her mother at six, but joined her in Mombasa in 1994, where she joined a primary school. A year later, her mother allegedly accompanied her to Nairobi to meet Mr Keen in his office and introduced him to her.

OUT OF WEDLOCK

The woman allegedly rejected her daughter’s subsequent requests for a visit to Mr Keen, telling her that he had said he did not want any relationship touching on children born out of wedlock.

Ms Karimi claims she visited Mr Keen’s office again in 1997 and he received her well and gave her Sh3,000 for pocket money.

The visits, she says, went on until 2001 when all changed. Mr Keen, she alleges, turned her away and told her never to visit his Karen home again.