In a Wajir courtroom, a nine-year-old girl's seven years of lived experience proved more binding than blood. A magistrate ruled this week that Baby Z — abandoned as an infant in 2017 and raised by foster mother HHA — will remain in the home she has always known, after a biological aunt emerged in 2024 with DNA evidence but without the years of presence that shape a child's sense of self. The court's decision reflects an enduring tension in family law: whether kinship is defined by lineage or by the daily, unglamorous work of care.
Wajir court grants custody to foster mother, rejects biological family claim
A nine-year-old child abandoned as an infant faced potential separation from her established foster family after seven years of care and psychological bonding.