The High Court ruled that men cannot escape from the responsibility of providing for their children even if they claim to have no means to do so.
High Court Judge Aggrey Muchelelu delivered the ruling after a man appeared before the court seeking to block previous orders that had directed him to pay maintenance fee for his daughter.
The man in his submission argued that the amount of Sh70,000 demanded as maintenance fee was too much for him to raise monthly.
He further argued that the lower court failed to consider that parental responsibility should be shared by both parents.
Justice Muchelule, however, noted that one cannot escape responsibility when it comes to parenthood and children welfare.
"The provisions of a child's education, medical care and shelter is a statutory and constitutional responsibility of the father for which he cannot escape.
"The court cannot expose the child to such eventualities. Such exposure would not be in the best interests of the child," Muchelule ruled.
The ruling comes only a few weeks after High Court Judge Stephen Githingi ordered that women should provide more proof on the paternity of a child before the man is ordered to cater for the needs of the child in question.
The new ruling if faithfully implemented could see the return of sanity in families and minimise the high rate of “deadbeat fathers” — those who dodge their parental responsibilities.
