“I sold my land to educate him from primary school to university” – Father drags son to court seeking 20% of his salary for upkeep

A 73-year-old father has gone to court seeking to have his son surrender 20 percent of his earnings for his maintenance.

Gideon Kisira Cherowo, from Biirunda in Trans Nzoia County, has claimed that his son Washington Chepkombe Cherowo abandoned him despite having contributed to his education up till the tertiary level

He had filed the case at the Kitale High Court, stating that his son does not send him for upkeep even as when he is currently working at the Kenya Airports Authority.

While appearing in court, he said:
“I used all the resources I had to enable the defendant to be in a good position so that he can help us. Right now, my wife and I are in a horrible state yet we have a son who is working,”

“I sold my land in Cheptais, Bungoma, to educate him from primary to university. I also gave him a quarter of an acre. I even went ahead to pay dowry for the defendant’s wife, which cost me four cows and some amount of money, whose sum I cannot recall.” the aggrieved father said.

“I pray that since he has a good salary, I request 20 per cent of his salary to be given to me as the father,”.

Mzee Cherowo had actually filed the petition in November 17 attaching a testimony from one David Masyek Cherowo, anothe of his sons who has also insisted that his brother relinquish a part of his salary for their father’s upkeep.

“The defendant deserted his parents after he got a job. It is now 17 years since we saw him. He does not come or send any assistance to us. We are leading a very horrible life after the defendant consumed the very thing our father had, so as to take him to school,” Masyek said.

This is saddening as a child is supposed to turn his back on his family not to talk his parents who are aged and perhaps weak and not able to properly fend for themselves anymore.

Though, it may have seemed that all efforts to settle this within the family cycle has proven abortive that could be why they might have taken the matter to court.

It is said that case could develop into a precedent-setting affair as upkeep is normally reserved for minors and there is no clear-cut directive on how children, who become adults, should take care of their parents.