The High Court in Nyeri, on Monday, made a landmark ruling that is set to change how inheritance battles will be fought.
In the ruling, resident Judge, Justice Teresia Matheka, stated that children whose paternity is disputed will no longer need to be subjected to DNA tests so as to be included as beneficiaries of their father’s estate.
Instead, if the paternity dispute persists, such individuals can now seek to inherit the estate as dependants, as provided for under Section 29 of Laws of Succession Act.
The Act defines dependants as the wife/wives, or former wife/wives, and the children of the deceased.
Also, the deceased’s parents, step-parents, grandparents, grandchildren, step-children, children whom the deceased had taken into his family as his own.
The deceased's brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters, as were being maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death are also counted as dependants.
The Act also states that where the deceased was a woman, her husband, if he was being maintained by her immediately prior to the date of her death, automatically becomes a dependant.
Justice Matheka made the ruling, on a 19-year-old succession dispute, between two co-wives named CW and PN.
CW is said to have been an employee of the family before she got into a love affair with the deceased, who died in 1999.
The two women had gone to court on two different applications.
CW wanted to enjoined as a co-administrator of the deceased’s estate and her three children, be considered as dependants in the distribution of property.
On her part, PN wanted an order compelling the three children to undergo a DNA test, to ascertain if they were fathered by the deceased.
