By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT 

Justice Owour described the move as an exemplary trailblazer noting that in most parts of Africa whenever conflicts occur, the intervention of government is usually sought  as opposed to using homegrown mechanisms.

She spoke on Tuesday during a community peace dialogue at the Ukasi trading center in Mwingi Central constituency. The area had borne the brunt of incessant conflicts between local and armed camels herders who encroach into Kitui from Garissa through Tana River.

The session that was held under tree shades was organized by the Patricia Mutemi-led Kitui Women for Peace and Security organisation with support from Conciliation Resources NGO that was represented by Ellyjoy Maslia.

Justice Owour said that seeking dialogue with elected leaders of communities involved in conflict was the best way to getting lasting solutions to disputes that lead to confrontational situations as opposed to seeking external intervention. 

She noted that not only that the Kitui Women for Peace and Security group  invited leaders of all shades of life to dialogues but also county and national government official to  made  the exercise all-inclusive. 

"What I am saying is that you are doing a very good job. You have the right spirit to solving your local issues. That is the most important thing,” said Justice Owour who a member of the AU Panel of the Wise representing Eastern Africa.

She pointed that since elected leaders serve the wishes and interest of the people who elect them, they must be reached out and brought to the table to participate dialogues that would result to peace.

 “We put everyone in those positions from the president to MCAs,” she said pointing out that they must be central in talks that would create peace among waring communities just as the Kitui Women for Peace and Security outfit was doing.

She said that conflicts were being experienced in many parts of Kenya thus becoming a national issue but added that the Kitui initiative was an eye opener on how such conflicts could be resolved. Justice Owour said the lesson learned was that elected leaders must be involved in peace building regardless of whether they come from the ruling UDA and ODM or whichever party since they are all Kenyans.

She said the Kitui example should be escalated to other conflict-hit areas where women should summon their senators and MPs through dialogue impress on them to finds ways to end conflicts borrowing from the Kitui experience.

She said the era when women were voiceless were long gone saying that even at the continental and international level women voices were being recognized at the AU and the UN. “It was decided then that in everything happening in the Africa continent, women must be key players. That is why FemWise was formed at the AU,” she said.

By MWINGI TIMES TEAM 

The Kitui Senator lamented that for nearly 15 years, access to quality healthcare has not been achieved. This is despite devolution of healthcare services being  the responsibility of counties. This has in turn led to heavy funding into the health docket but still challenges persist. 

Senator Wambua spoke at Katumbu AIC Church in Kitui East Constituency  where his Kiio Wambua Foundation and various stakeholders had organised  a free medical camp.

The former journalist took issue with successive county government administrations accusing them of failing to tackle healthcare services to match the expectations of common wananchi.  It is in such context that Senator Enoch Wambua decided to use his Foundation to organise free medical camps across the county. Already,  he has done 14 medical camps in different places of Kitui county. 

"These free medical camps have become necessary because successive Kitui County Governments have failed to sufficiently improve healthcare services in health facilities across the county", he said.

Kitui county dispensaries and health centres have limited medical equipment leading to shortage of quality medical services,  opined Senator Enoch Wambua. 

During the latest healthcare outreach, about 500 people showed up to be treated for both eyes and dental services.  General medical consultations were also done.

Among the Kiio Wambua Foundation partners are Mt Kenya University and the Community Health Providers,  CHPs. The Senator pledged to improve working conditions of CHPs once elected governor of Kitui county next year. He is vying on Wiper Patriotic Front ticket.

By BRIAN MUSYOKA 

The initiative seeks to establish a reliable financial lifeline for thousands of needy learners by using returns generated from the fund to finance scholarships and other forms of student assistance. The university hopes the ambitious target will eventually bring an end to cases of students dropping out or postponing their studies due to financial constraints.

Vice Chancellor Prof. Daniel Mugendi disclosed that the fund, which was established in 2018, is steadily approaching the Sh100 million mark and has already supported slightly more than 5,000 needy student cases.

He said the university was determined to expand the fund's reach to accommodate the growing number of students requiring financial assistance, noting that the current resources were insufficient to address all the cases brought before the institution. "Our ambition is to impact many more students. That is why we have set a target of Sh10 billion, which will enable us to support thousands of needy learners who currently miss out on assistance due to limited resources," Prof. Mugendi said.

Speaking during an endowment fund mobilisation walk and family fun day, the Vice Chancellor explained that the university intended to build a permanent financial resource whose investment returns would continuously support students without depleting the principal amount.

He observed that achieving the Sh10 billion target would significantly increase the fund's investment income, enabling the institution to respond to a larger number of financial assistance requests.

The Chairperson of the Endowment Fund Board of Trustees, Lenny Kivuti, described the initiative as a transformative investment in the future of disadvantaged students, noting that the fund had evolved from a small emergency support kitty into a sustainable institutional financing mechanism.

Kivuti said supporting more than 5,000 student cases since its establishment demonstrated the fund's growing impact and its potential to become a dependable source of long-term educational financing.

The former Embu Senator further noted that the initiative had helped reduce reliance on public fundraising activities traditionally organised to rescue students facing financial difficulties, replacing them with a more structured, dignified and sustainable support system.

University Chancellor Prof. Musili Wambua called on other institutions of higher learning to embrace the endowment fund model, arguing that universities could no longer depend entirely on government capitation to meet their expanding financial obligations.

He pointed out that government resources were stretched across competing national priorities, while the demand for university education and financial assistance continued to rise.

Prof. Wambua maintained that institutions needed to develop alternative and sustainable funding mechanisms to complement government support and ensure that deserving students were not denied opportunities because of their financial backgrounds.

He cited established universities across the world whose multibillion-dollar endowment funds have become critical sources of scholarships, research funding and institutional development, urging Kenyan universities to adopt similar models.

The University of Embu's Sh10 billion ambition marks a major step towards building a sustainable education financing system in which financial hardships do not stand between deserving students and their academic dreams.

By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT 

In a speech read on her behalf, Higher Education Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala said it was noteworthy that Seku is increasingly positioning itself  as a university that impacts the society beyond its the teaching sphere. Higher Education Secretary Carol Hunja read the PS's statement during the institution's 13th graduation ceremony on Friday.

"In 2026 alone, the university has undertaken several initiatives that demonstrate its commitment to innovation,  research, community engagement  and national development", said PS Inyangala.

1327 graduands were awarded and conferred with degrees from the highest level of PhD to degrees and diplomas. 

Some of the transformative projects done by Seku include the Horizon Europe TWIN4READY project that is aimed at strengthening climate resilience and flood preparedness. 

The Higher Education PS lauded Seku saying it is using its international research networks to solve problems affecting the immediate neighbourhoods. "Climate change is no longer an abstract concept in our country. We have witnessed floods, droughts and other climate-related challenges affecting livelihoods in recent times", she observed.

Situated in an arid and semi-arid land with the motto: Arid to Green; transforming lives,  Seku's development in research and innovations will come in handy as the region battles climate change challenges. 

Seku Vice Chancellor Prof Douglas Shitanda said the university had celebrated significant milestones in becoming a top academic centre in the region and country. He said they currently have a student population of 13000. This, he said, was due to increased demand for higher education as well as diversification in courses offered.

"The introduction of programmes that respond to emerging industry and market needs, coupled with the continued confidence that students and stakeholders have placed in the university,  has also contributed to this growth", said Prof Shitanda.

BY AMOS MUOKI

Across the country , another family faces a different dispute. John and Mary adopted a baby girl in 2005 under a lawful adoption order. They raised her, paid her school fees and loved her as their own. When John died without a will in 2024, his relatives argued that she could not inherit because she was "not really John's child."

Both cases turn on one question: in Kenyan succession law, who counts as a child? The answer is more inclusive than many Kenyans realise. The Law of Succession Act, read together with the Children Act, the Legitimacy Act and the Constitution, protects children regardless of how they came into the family.

Once a court makes an adoption order, the child is treated in law as the child of the adopter. The legal ties to the birth parents end, and new ties are formed with the adoptive family. Under the Children Act, the parental rights and duties over the child's custody, maintenance and education pass to the adopter, and the child is treated as one born to the adopter within marriage. The Act also entitles an adopted child to a share of the adopter's estate as if the child were the adopter's natural child.

In practice, this means an adopted child inherits exactly as a biological child would. The child counts in the distribution of an intestate estate and may benefit under a will. The same ties that bring new rights also end old ones: because the adoption order severs the link with the birth parents, the child generally cannot claim against a birth parent's estate.In In re EL aka RB , the High Court confirmed that an adoption order gives a child every right a biological child enjoys, including the right to inherit. The court noted that the applicant understood and accepted those consequences.

For families like John and Mary's, the lesson is plain. Relatives cannot shut out an adopted child by calling her an outsider. The law says otherwise.

A child born to parents who are not married to each other is, in law, a child born out of wedlock. If the parents later marry each other, the child is "legitimated" and is treated as though born within the marriage from the start.

The Legitimacy Act allows a legitimated person, together with their spouse, children and remoter issue, to take an interest in an intestate estate as if the person had been born legitimate. The Act also governs how the property of a legitimated person who dies without a will passes on. The practical effect is that such a child can inherit from the father, from the father's relatives and from the mother, on the same footing as any other child.

The rule matters in a country where many couples live together and start families before formalising their union. The timing of a wedding, the law says, should not permanently disadvantage the children.

Under customary law and, traditionally, Islamic law, a child whose parents never married often had no claim on the father's estate. The Law of Succession Act changed that. Section 3(2) widens the meaning of "child" for succession purposes. A child born out of wedlock is the child of their mother for all purposes. As far as a father is concerned, the term covers a child he has expressly recognised, in fact accepted as his own, or for whom he has voluntarily assumed permanent responsibility.

The test looks at the father's conduct, not paperwork. He need not have married the mother, and his name need not appear on the birth certificate. What matters is whether he recognised the child, accepted the child or took on responsibility for the child.

The courts have read the provision generously. In Re Estate of Reuben Nzioka Mutua (deceased), a woman's purported customary-law marriage failed because the man had earlier contracted a statutory marriage, so she was not his wife. Her children, however, had been recognised by the deceased and qualified as his children under section 3(2).

In Re Estate of Jonathan Mutua Misi (deceased), Mwera J held that the child of an adulterous union may inherit from the father, reasoning that such a child is the father's offspring and cannot be required to prove the mother's marriage. The Court of Appeal reached the same position in John Ndung'u Mubea v Milka Nyambura Mubea matters.

The most significant recent development came from the Supreme Court in Fatuma Athman Abud Faraj v Ruth Faith Mwawasi & Others (2025). The case concerned a Muslim man who had children by several women. Some were born within Islamic marriages and others were not, and the question was whether the latter could inherit, given that Islamic law traditionally excludes them.

The Court held that letting children born within marriage inherit while denying the same to others is unjustifiable discrimination, contrary to Articles 27 and 53 of the Constitution. It read Article 24(4), which allows Islamic law to apply to personal status, as subject to proportionality. Any departure from the guarantee of equality, the Court said, must be narrowly tailored, reasonable, justifiable and necessary, and Article 24(4) is not a blanket exemption. Punishing children for the supposed "sins" of their parents was neither reasonable nor justifiable.

The decision means that even under Islamic succession, children born out of wedlock cannot be excluded automatically. Their claims must be weighed against the constitutional promise of equality and the best interests of the child.

How does a child prove who their parent was? The starting point is section 118 of the Evidence Act. It provides that birth during a valid marriage between the mother and a man, or within 280 days after the marriage ended while the mother remained unmarried, is conclusive proof that the child is that man's legitimate child. The only exception is where it is shown that the spouses had no access to each other at any time when the child could have been conceived.

Courts guard the presumption closely. In Njenga v Njenga [1985], Madan JA, drawing on English authority, said that if the husband had intercourse with the wife, the presumption is not displaced by showing that other men did too. The law does not weigh up who is the likelier father. The evidence needed to rebut it must be strong, distinct, satisfactory and conclusive, because the consequences for the child and the mother last a lifetime.

The presumption does not apply to a child born outside marriage. Such a child can establish paternity by showing that the father recognised or accepted them under section 3(2), by producing documents or witnesses, or by DNA testing. Courts have grown more willing to order tests. In Re Estate of JWK (Deceased) (2026), the High Court upheld an order for DNA testing where a woman said she was the deceased's biological daughter and had been left out of the grant. The court held that the pursuit of truth justified the order.

What this means for Grace

Grace's position depends on a fact her story leaves open: was her mother married to the teacher when Grace was born? If she was, section 118 presumes Grace is the teacher's child, and Grace would first have to overcome that presumption by proving non-access. If her mother was unmarried, Grace may prove Peter's paternity through his recognition or acceptance, through documents and witnesses, or through DNA evidence. 

In either case she should seek legal advice early, because a deathbed statement alone is unlikely to carry a claim.

Lawyers say there are practical steps every family can take. Adoptive parents should make sure the adoption is formalised by a court order. An informal arrangement, however loving, does not give a child the automatic status of an adopted child, although the child may still have other routes to a claim, such as being a dependant of the deceased. Parents who marry after having children should update the children's records and keep the marriage and birth certificates together.

Unmarried fathers who want their children to inherit should recognise them, accept them as their own or take on permanent responsibility for them, and keep evidence of having done so. Making a will removes any doubt.

Children who believe they have a claim should gather everything that shows the relationship, from birth certificates and photographs to messages, proof of school fees and witness statements, and be ready for a DNA test if paternity is disputed. 

Relatives who try to exclude adopted, legitimated or out-of-wedlock children, meanwhile, increasingly risk losing in court.

Kenya's succession law has travelled a long way from the days when adopted children and children born out of wedlock were shut out of the family estate. Family, the courts now say, is not defined only by blood or by a marriage certificate, and children should not pay for the choices of their parents.

For John and Mary's daughter, the law is clear: she is John's child for every purpose, including inheritance. For Grace, the door is open, but she will need evidence. In Kenyan succession law, all children count.

The Writer is committed to educating Kenyans on their legal rights and responsibilities. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers with specific concerns should consult a qualified advocate.