Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, who sponsored the Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill 2019, says he is “happy that slay queens and woman-eaters have fallen” after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Bill into law on Wednesday.
The new law would see secret lovers get locked out of their partners’ wealth in case of death.
“[Today is] my happiest day as a legislator! Strangers who have been pirating on the property of the dead have been stopped! Only persons who contracted valid marriage with the deceased will now claim the estate of the deceased,” Kaluma told The Standard in a text message on Wednesday afternoon.
“Children have also been protected, whether or not their biological parents were married. Slay queens and woman-eaters have fallen!”
President Kenyatta assented to the Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill 2019 sponsored by Kaluma on November 12, 2019, and passed by the National Assembly.
The Bill sought to amend the definition of the word dependant so as to lock out “illegitimate” spouses from inheriting the property of a deceased person.
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”.
Others, who are considered as dependants, are 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.
The law, however, gives room for the nonconventional dependants, including secret lovers, to fight for their rights if they feel aggrieved by the decision to lock them out of the deceased’s wealth.
“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.”
While justifying the Bill in November 2019, Kaluma said: “The main aim of the Bill is to avoid situations where opportunistic schemers successfully claim a stake in a deceased person’s estate hence disenfranchising the legitimate heirs of the deceased.”
“The Bill seeks to provide clarity on who a dependant of a deceased person is. It gives stronger protection to the spouse, children and extended family of a deceased person in succession matters.”
“The Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill 2019 will streamline administration of succession matters in the country,” President Kenyatta said on Wednesday, November 17 after assenting to the Bill.
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