Kibaki's Children Reject DNA-test

With two people alleging in court that they were sired by former president Mwai Kibaki and demand a piece of his riches, children of the former president have blocked a suggestion for a DNA test to determine whether they are siblings.

Kibaki's four children, led by Judith Wanjiku, have asked the court to reject a request for sibling and paternity DNA testing made by Jacob Ocholla and a woman with the codename JNL, claiming that it violates their right to privacy.

Following Kibaki's passing in April 2022, Mr. Ocholla and Ms. JNL filed a lawsuit, claiming an interest in his estate and requesting DNA tests to prove they are the former president's offspring.

They wish to be acknowledged as his offspring and as the inheritors of his enormous inheritance.

The court should compel a sibling or paternity DNA test, according to Mr. Ocholla and Ms. JNL. In their first petition, they ask the court to order that they, along with Kibaki's four children — Judy, James Mark Kibaki, David Kagai Kibaki, and Anthony Andrew Githinji Kibaki — undergo a DNA test to determine whether they are in fact the late President's offspring.

The second and alternative plea asks the court to order the exhumation of Kibaki's body so that DNA paternity test samples can be extracted from it and collected.

According to Mr. Ocholla's attorney Morara Omoke, exhuming Kibaki's remains is the only way to conduct a paternity test because "there are no known DNA samples of Kibaki that have been saved in a data bank or any other institution."

Judy, however, has also voiced her opposition to Mr. Ocholla and Ms. JNL receiving any of Kibaki's wealth in a court response submitted on behalf of her three siblings.

She has contested Mr. Ocholla's and Ms. JNL's paternity.

After a court-ordered mediation between the two parties ended in failure, she responded.

Judge Maureen Odero of the High Court had ordered the mediation last month.

She claims that having her DNA tested would violate both her and her three siblings' privacy.

She adds that a decision to exhume the late President's remains cannot be "whimsically granted" because his burial followed a State funeral and was a significant event for the country and the world, as well as being publicly funded.

She further claims that Mr. Ocholla and Ms. JNL are not mentioned in late President Kibaki's testament, which was dated November 30, 2016, in which he divided his estate equally among his children.

Mr. Kibaki divided his hidden money equally among his four children, Judy, Jimmy, David, and Anthony, in a six-page will he signed in 2016.

When Mr. Kibaki, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 90, made the decision to limit the distribution of his estate and bank accounts to members of his bloodline, he left his children-in-law out of the succession plan.

Judy adds that during his lifetime, Kibaki never introduced the two to his family.

She also mentions that Ms. JNL's mother is still alive and that her parents are known. She claims that claims that Ms. JNL's mother was romantically involved with Kibaki are untrue.

Ms. JNL claims that Kibaki and her mother met in the late 1950s while they were both students in the United Kingdom.

She claims in her court documents that while Kibaki was a political science and economics student, her mother was studying hygiene and tropical medicine.

But in response, Judy refutes the accusation and adds that Ms. JNL's photo with Kibaki does not prove that she is the former president's biological daughter because he was a well-known figure who was frequently photographed with a variety of people. Judy also refutes the claim that she has known Ms. JNL since 1968.

Judy and her siblings deny having any interaction with Ms JNL in a personal or familial role.

A "simple facial likeness, without more, which is disputed, is inadequate to prove a familial tie between Mr. Ocholla and Kibaki," Judy tells Mr. Ocholla.

She continues by stating that there is no supporting documentation or testimony from a third party for Mr. Ocholla's claims on his relationship with Kibaki.

Judy rejects even more. The fact that Mr. Ocholla was his biological son was acknowledged by President Kibaki.