Woman in court to block son from being relocated to the USA
The boy holds Kenyan and USA citizenship but the woman says she currently works in Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- The child holds both Kenyan and USA citizenship.
- The woman says she is currently working in Nairobi.
A Kenyan woman has moved to court to block the relocation of her six-year-old son to the USA.
In the application to be heard on Friday morning, TMK wants to be granted sole custody of the minor since she is a fully resident in Kenya and has been caring for the boy since 2019.
The woman says she has been living with her son with her mother (child’s grandmother) in Nairobi since February 2019.
A Nairobi court had last month ordered the boy’s grandmother to release the boy for him to be taken to New York, USA, where TMK and the boy’s father CAD, a USA citizen would fight for the child’s custody.
The relocation has since been halted by the court.
Dual citizenship
“The applicant has brought this application for custody in order for her to be able to have actual custody, care and control of the minor since it has been difficult for the applicant to make decisions concerning the minor without the Respondent (the boy’s father), who has not been taking care of the minor since 2019,” she said in the application.
The boy holds both Kenyan and USA citizenship but the woman says she is currently working in Nairobi and the child attends school in the city.
She moved to court arguing that the child is likely to be taken to the USA, yet it was in the child’s best interest that he remains in Kenya.
TMK says she is in a position to take care of the child’s basic needs singlehandedly.
Evidence filed in court stated that the parents met sometimes in 2016 and cohabited for a while and boy was born in November 2017 in Brooklyn, New York.
The parents were planning to marry but later abandoned the idea.
She former boyfriend convinced her to move back to the USA in 2019 to repair their relationship but when they arrived in New York, he allegedly abandoned them and moved from their home.
Walking out on the child
“Since I had no means of taking cate of the minor in the United States alone, I decided to travel back to Kenya with the minor in February 2019,” she said in the court documents.
Senior resident magistrate Festus Terer had in April ruled that the boy’s parents were alive and the maternal grandmother, identified as MWM- does not have the capacity to be his guardian.
The court then ordered the boy to be handed to the authorities for his to be taken to the USA in a process that should be facilitated by the directorate of children services and Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome.
Attempts by MWM to challenge the ruling at the High Court were futile as the court upheld the magistrate’s ruling.
MWM had accused CAD of walking out on the child and his mother and abandoned them in New York City on 2019 without food and shelter forcing her to take in the child, forcing her to fend for them.
