By Our Reporter,
NAIROBI:
•He alleges that his son has not come home for the last 17 years and the family has asked for his help in vain.
73 yr-old Kenyan father in Bungoma Western Kenya has sued his son for upkeep demanding 20 per cent of his monthly salary.
The Father identified as Gideon Kisira Cherowo said the son is a salaried employee of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) but had never allocated part of his income to his parents as their upkeep.
In his suit, Kisira said he had sacrificed a lot for his son, now aged 48 so that he could later help them financially.
He said he had tried reaching out to his son to no avail. “I used all the resources I had to enable the defendant to be in a good position so that he can help us. Right now, my wife and I are in a horrible state yet we have a son who is working. I pray that since the defendant has a good salary, I request for 20% of his salary to be given to me as the father. I sold my land in Cheptais, Bungoma, to educate him from primary to university. I also gave him a quarter of an acre. I even went ahead to pay dowry for the defendant’s wife, which cost me four cows and some amount of money, whose sum I cannot recall,” said Kisira in the suit filed at the Kitale High Court.
He says of his four sons only one is employed but, does not extend any support to the family yet the family has never disclosed the details of his contract with KAA.
He added that since he was employed in 2008, the family is yet to know his roles at the agency. Kisira said his son has never shown up at home for 17 years now and during the period, he has never sent home any assistance.
He now wants the court to compel his son to commit 20% of his salary to his parents’ upkeep.
Kisiria told court that he could not afford the services of a lawyer and brought his youngest son as a witness.
The son told the court that his eldest brother had abandoned the family after landing a job in the capital Nairobi.
He asked the court to listen to his father’s plea as they had spent all their fortune on educating the brother.
The family lives in a mud-house in Birunda village, Saboti Sub County in Trans Nzoia County says it lives in a horrendous state while their kin is in gainful employment with the state agency.
They lives in a one-roomed brick house in his three-quarter-acre in Bungoma. He also has a two-roomed mud house and uses one of the rooms therein as the kitchen.
He has a bathroom made out of banana leaves in the compound where he stays with his wife. The law is yet to be clear regarding the extent to which children can be compelled to look after their parents.
The son has not yet responded to the lawsuit by the time of press. Court was also yet to set a date for the hearing of the case.
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