Dear, Father Abrahams, the new law demands mandatory upkeep for children

Piece by: MOSES ODHIAMBO
Exclusives
Cute baby and mummy photo.
Cute baby and mummy photo.
Image: PhotosForClass.com

The entertainment industry is full of baby daddies who have children with multiple women. They are known as Father Abrahams.

They make the news when they are branded, deadbeats after a bitter fallout with their significant other.

Well, the proposed bill has some news for them. The Children Bill, 2021, seeks to repeal the Children Act, 2001, to provide for penalties for denying a child the right to life, survival, wellbeing and development.

The government has drawn a new set of laws spelling a raft of hefty fines for child neglect and abuse - especially in social and electronic media spaces.

The bill sponsored by Majority leader Amos Kimunya gives the state powers to take measures against any abuses of child rights and neglect of parental responsibility.

On parental responsibility, the bill provides that where a child is born in wedlock, the parents of the child shall have parental responsibility for the child on an equal basis.

“Neither the father nor the mother of the child shall have a superior right or claim against the other in the exercise of such parental responsibility.”

“Where a child is born out of wedlock, and the parents of the child subsequently get married to each other, the parents shall have parental responsibility for the child on an equal basis,” the law reads.

In the event either or both parents of the child subsequently marry other persons, the parent assuming legal custody of the child shall be entitled to exercise parental responsibility for the child.

The bill provides that they would do this either alone or jointly with his or her spouse. “Two or more persons may have and exercise concurrent parental responsibility over the same child.”

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