A 13-year-old girl has asked a court to stop her parents from taking her to the US. She went to the Milimani Law Courts to say that her British father and her French stepmother, with help from some police officers, were trying to separate her from her mother.
The girl claims her rights were violated when she was taken and forced to board a plane against her will. Her father lives in the US, and there has been a custody battle since he remarried in 2015. The girl has mostly lived in Kenya with her mother, and a court decided in 2015 that she should stay with her.
In her court petition, the girl said she is scared of being taken away by police. This fear has grown because police have tried to take her twice—once from her home in August and again from her school in September. The officers were trying to prepare her to go to the US. She also claims that the Inspector General of Police bought her a one-way ticket to the US without her permission. This situation has made her very stressed, and now she attends school from home because she is afraid of being taken away.
The girl told the court that she felt safe and happy with her mother. She does not feel the same connection with her father and stepmother. She grew up in a Christian home and does not feel comfortable in her father’s home. She also said she has never been happy living in the US. Her lawyer explained that the girl feels ignored by her stepmother, who has her children. This makes the girl feel left out. The lawyer is asking the court to stop the father, stepmother, police, and government officials from taking her out of Kenya by force.
By Standard