A woman has moved to court to block her six-and-a-half-year-old son from being relocated to the US.
The woman identified by the court as TMK who has been living with her mother (boy’s grandmother) told the court that she has raised the boy by herself since 2019 and wants the court to grant her full custody of the minor.
Last month, the court ordered the grandmother to allow the boy to fly to New York, USA, where TMK would go up against the son’s father identified as CAD, who is a US citizen, in a fight for his custody.
The relocation has been stopped by the court.
“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,” the court papers read in part.
The boy is a dual citizen of Kenya and the US but lives with her mother in Nairobi where he attends school.
XY told the court that the child would like to remain in Kenya but is likely to be relocated to the US against his wishes. She says she is in a position to take care of her son.
The court heard that the two met in 2016 and lived together for a while. Their son was born in November 2017. The two had agreed to marry before they abandoned the plan.
CAD attempted to mend the relationship and invited TMK and their son to live together in Brooklyn, New York. However, he abandoned them after they returned and moved to another neighbourhood.
“Since I had no means of taking care of the minor in the United States alone, I decided to travel back to Kenya with the minor in February 2019,” the court heard.
Senior Resident Magistrate Festus Terer ruled that the boy’s grandmother could not be his guardian since both his parents were alive.
The court ordered the boy be handed over to the authorities and flown to the US in a process organised by the director of children services and the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome.
An attempt by the boy’s grandmother to overturn the ruling flopped in court.
She told the court that CAD had abandoned the boy and TMK in New York without food and shelter, forcing her to take them in and fend for them.
