At Kamenge Residence Court, many cases concern women who come for denied paternity. This is about fathers refusing to pay children maintenance allowances.-By Yves Didier Irakoze
Liévin Rupande: … many people ignore the danger and the consequences when some parents get children outside the family due to infidelity ©Iwacu
According to Liévin Rupande, the President of Kamenge Residence Court, these kinds of cases are frequently observed in Court. Very often, it is an officially married man who gets a child from another woman. Cases occur when a woman comes to accuse the man of rejecting the paternity of the child. “What we do here in Residence Court, we listen to parents and find the solution to the issue by making careful investigations in order to really know whether or not the child belongs to the so- called father. If it is proved that the child is his, he must register him officially in the commune office. Thereafter, he is obliged to pay regularly the maintenance allowances each month,” points out the Chairman. He adds that there are unfortunately many fathers who refuse to pay the maintenance allowances to their children; this is the reason why mothers often come to complain about that. According to him, there are three alternatives:
First, if a father refuses to pay the maintenance allowances while he has a job somewhere, we write a letter to the employer to make a transfer on the Court account. Then, we take the responsibility to provide the maintenance allowances to the mother of the child.
Secondly, if the father is jobless but owning some properties or a rented house; we seize one of his properties or we collect a certain amount to help the child. We sometimes oblige the tenant not to pay immediately the rent to the house owner. Third, for someone who is unemployed or owning nothing, we don’t do anything. The Court is obliged to wait until that person gets something. “We often come across these cases in our daily activities. Even though appropriate decisions are taken by the court, it is very difficult to reach the execution,” highlights Rupande.
Sensitization is of a paramount importance
Liévin Rupande mentions that many people ignore the danger and the consequences when some parents get children outside the family due to infidelity.
“Some of them break the law ignorantly especially those illiterate people. Sensitization campaigns should be reinforced by the government in particular as the latter is convincing people to adopt a family planning policy,” states Rupande. According to the President, unfaithful parents should be fined and punished very seriously to eradicate this behavior that has become a big threat in the society. It’s worth underlining that many cases are not brought to Court because many women fear to be mistreated, beaten, divorced and abandoned by their husbands. Women associations should convince mothers to dare denounce those evil cases whenever they occur in their families.
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