Woman fights for DNA tests to confirm paternity of her five children
Ms Mary Chelagat and Mr Bejamin Chesulut when they appeared before the High Court in Nakuru on March 4, 2015. Ms Chelagat asked the court to order a DNA test to ascertain the paternity of her late son Wilson Kerich and four others. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
What you need to know:
- Mary Chelagat says Mzee Benjamin Chesulut’s denial of the children has tainted her image as an honest ‘wife’ in their five-decade-old marriage.
But Mzee Chesulut strongly rejected the application, saying he had never had any affair with the woman, and that she and her children were strangers who invaded his 60-acre farm in Keringet, Nakuru County.
The woman wants to bury her dead son on Mzee Chesulut's farm, a plan the man has opposed.
The High Court on Friday allowed a 99-year-old man to respond to an application by his third ‘wife’ seeking to have paternity of their five children confirmed via DNA analysis.
Environment and Land Court Judge Justice Sila Munyao made the ruling after Ms Mary Chelagat urged the court to order a DNA test, saying Mzee Benjamin Chesulut’s claims had tainted her image as an honest ‘wife’ in their five-decade-old marriage.
But Mzee Chesulut strongly rejected the application, saying he had never had any affair with the woman, and that she and her children were strangers who invaded his 60-acre farm in Keringet, Nakuru County .
“The woman and her children are on my farm illegally and I have filed several cases in court from criminal to civil suits seeking to have them ejected," he said.
HALT BURIAL
"Now she wants to bury her son on my farm claiming that he is my son and also bears my name. That is not true,” he added.
The man, who has five wives, where one is deceased, told the court to halt the planned burial of 46-year-old Wilson Kerich, saying it would desecrate his farm and cause him untold misery and trauma.
But Ms Chelagat said she had remained faithful during her marriage to Mzee Chesulut, adding that she was his ‘purse’ when he worked as a primary school teacher in Sondu in Nyanza, Kabianga in Kericho and at Ngata before they differed and she returned to her parents.
She expressed shock at the application to halt the burial, saying it was Mzee Chesulut who showed Kerich a five-acre parcel of land to build a house, adding that Mzee Chesulut was enraged when Kerich invited her to live with him.
The case will be mentioned next week.
