A Homabay-based magistrate Jacinta Orwa has cautioned local residents against disinheriting orphaned children of properties that belonged to their deceased parents.
Jacinta challenged area chiefs to provide proper inventory of the deceased dependents whenever they were required especially during succession processes.
“We have the children, and when parents die, the uncles, aunts decide to disinherit the children of the properties left behind by their parents,” she observed, noting that such incidences were rampant not only in Homabay County but all over the country.
The magistrate said as stakeholders in the administration of justice, they are called upon to give these children due justice adding that “let’s see that they inherit what belonged to their parents”.
She asked chiefs to ensure that whenever they were called upon to give a list of the dependents of the deceased parents, whether they are married daughters or not, they must do so faithfully.
“The mandate of deciding who the beneficiaries are lies with the judge or magistrate. It’s not for the chief to decide. That is the justice we are talking about,” Orwa said during Oyugi’s law court open day to mark the children service month.
The magistrate observed some of the children were at the orphanages not because of their choice but because of the unfortunate incidences and that at the end of the day, they have to go back to the community where they have to trace their roots.
She asked the Children Officer together with other stakeholder to ensure that these safe homes are duly registered and if not registered, she said they must be closed because as judiciary and stakeholders in the administration of justice, they must provide safety in terms of accommodation to the children. She termed it as child abuse when safe homes operated illegally and yet children were being sent there.
“We are here to secure safe access to justice for the children,” she said referring to the theme of the day; “Seeking justice for every child: enhancing multi-agency collaboration and increasing budgetary allocation to combat child abuse.”
The magistrate asked police to be keen on the Children Act 2022 and utilisation of forensic lab among others as key factors to promoting justice for the children in Homabay County.
She asked Homabay county govt to provide a child remand home for detaining minors who are in conflict with the law.
“This is our plea as members of the Court Users’ Committee (CUC). We don’t have a children’s remand home in Homabay County, and we are doing a lot of injustice to the children who are in conflict with the law,” Orwa said.
She decried that children have to be ferried all the way to Manga in Nyamira County, being the only children remand home accommodating so many children from the larger south Nyanza region.
The magistrate noted that having the children remand home in the county would bring justice closer to the local people
She also asked the police to acknowledge the existence of intersex children, who when arrested, the police are not sure how to deal with them saying they are always being discriminated against because they do not know whether they are female or male.
By Moseti Julius
