President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law a bill that would lock out secret lovers from inheriting their partner’s wealth if they die.
On Wednesday, November 17, the first in command assented to the Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that locks out the secret lovers (popularly known as Mpango wa Kando in Kenya) from inheriting the property of a deceased person.
Uhuru while ascending to the Bill that was sponsored by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma said it will streamline the administration of succession problems in the country.
The Bill sought to amend the definition of the word dependant.
In the new law, a dependant is defined as “the spouse and children of the deceased, whether or not maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death”.
“A person not named in this section shall not be a dependant for the purposes of this Act unless the person proves (he or she was) maintained by the deceased for a period of two years prior to the deceased’s death,” read an excerpt of the law.
However, the deceased’s parents, step-parents, grandparents, grandchildren, step-children, children whom the deceased had taken into his family as his own, brothers, sisters, half-brothers, and half-sisters who were being maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death will also be considered as dependants.
Kaluma in 2019 told the Standard that “the main aim of the Bill was to avoid situations where opportunistic schemers successfully claim a stake in a deceased person’s estate hence disenfranchising the legitimate heirs of the deceased.”
President Uhuru also signed into law the Refugees Bill and Foreign Service Bill.
For the three Bills to become law, they will have to be gazetted as Acts of Parliament within the next seven days and come into force after two weeks from the date they would be gazette.
