More and more Ugandan men seek DNA paternity tests, often with heartbreaking results

NABUMALI, Uganda (AP) — Among the most sensitive family disputes that Moses Kutoi mediates include those involving upset men questioning why some are at odds with others. their children Don’t be like them.

for Ugandan For a clan leader attuned to the wisdom of his ancestors, this topic is taboo and should never be discussed with others. But Kutoi sometimes feels compelled to intervene in the hope of saving marriages that have turned violent and are on the verge of collapse.

“Even I don’t look like my father,” the clan leader told a disbelieving man he had recently helped.

As DNA testing has become more common, paternity has become an important test of faith in this East African country; This is partly driven by published reports of prominent Ugandans who eventually discovered that they were not the biological fathers of some of their children.

The issue has escalated so much that clergy and traditional leaders now encourage tolerance and a return to the kind of African teachings that village elders like Kutoi say they advocate.

At last year’s Christmas Day service, Uganda’s Anglican archbishop Stephen Kaziimba cited the example of Jesus’ virgin birth, the foundation of the Christian faith, in a sermon aimed at discouraging DNA testing among believers.

“You get DNA and find out that only two of the four children are yours,” he warned. “So look at children as they are, as Joseph did.”

Paternity disputes on the rise

The Ministry of Internal Affairs operates a government-accredited laboratory that carries out court-ordered investigations. It is stated that the number of men who want to undergo voluntary DNA testing has increased recently and often produces “heartbreaking” results.

“About 95 percent of those who come for DNA testing are men, but over 98 percent of the results show that these men are not the biological father,” Home Office spokesman Simon Peter Mundeyi told reporters in July.

His advice to men was not to seek DNA evidence of paternity “unless you have a strong heart.”

DNA testing centers have sprouted up all over Uganda, with aggressive advertising of clinical laboratories on the radio and in public spaces. The rear windows of some passenger taxis in Uganda’s capital Kampala have been covered with advertisements for facilities offering DNA testing.

In Nabumali, a small town where Kutoi is mayor, many families cannot afford DNA testing fees of more than $200 at the only private laboratory equipped to do such work in the nearby city of Mbale.

Couples who seek Kutoi’s help can barely tolerate each other when they approach him. He tries to ease the tension with self-deprecating jokes and sharing his own experience with the taboo subject. Kutoi likes to point out that although he does not resemble his father, he was still chosen as the family heir, allowing him to become a clan leader among the Bagisu people.

In the past, when a man spoke publicly about his paternity concerns, the elders of the community would visit him. Kutoi said he could be punished, including being forced to pay a fine.

“You should not say that I suspect that this child does not belong to me,” Kutoi said, adding that being drunk was no excuse for such a statement.

Disputes are related to property and divorce cases

Many paternity disputes in Uganda these days revolve around the distribution of property after the head of the family dies, but also during divorce proceedings where spousal maintenance is contested.

In the most notable recent case, court-ordered DNA testing showed that a wealthy academic in Kampala was not the father of one of the three children. This case was widely covered in the local press, highlighting that paternity is an issue affecting a wide range of families.

The Rev. Robert Wantsala, vicar of a small Anglican congregation in the eastern district of Mbale, has spoken out about a series of paternity disputes he has encountered. He recalled a woman who had her late husband’s son DNA tested before he was considered the beneficiary of her inheritance, two men arguing over a child each believed to be his, and a man who said he wanted a DNA test because he did not treat his adult son like a family member.

Recalling an incident that took place in 2023, Wantsala said, “The man said to his son, ‘This character does not exist in my family.'”

The son retorted, gaining the community’s approval by telling his father that he would agree to take an exam “as long as you invite my (dead) mother.”

Wantsala echoed the advice of Anglican archbishop Kaziimba and said he always told people in doubt to leave the matter to God.

“Children are children, no matter how they come,” he said. “The child born at home is your child. Even in the African tradition, this was the case.”

Kutoi said men who request a DNA test without considering the consequences are wasting their time.

“For us, they knew that the child belonged to you,” he said, speaking of Africa’s traditional society.

Kutoi said disowning children was unheard of, although some men were known to take prudent measures such as offering the disputed son an inheritance of land far away from the ancestral settlement where the heir would settle.

Faith leaders counsel families

Other religious leaders held consultative meetings.

Andrew Mutengu, pastor of Word of Faith Ministries in Mbale, said paternity was a recurring theme in many disputes he mediated among 800 congregation members.

Last month, he helped a wealthy businessman’s wife take care of the teenage daughter of her ex-boyfriend, a local barber. After the woman confessed her infidelity, Mutengu summoned the barber, who agreed to stop publicizing his claim that it was in the child’s best interest.

“He walks around bragging, ‘I’m his father,'” he said of the barber. “It was actually causing problems because this woman was in the same house with another man who was known to be her husband.”

Mutengu said that regardless of objections from faith leaders, he believes more men in his community would seek DNA testing if it were cheaper.

Even Kutoi looked skeptical as his 29-year-old son crossed the compound at their home in Nabumali on a recent afternoon. The son is fair-skinned and taller than his father, who used the opportunity to joke.

“You saw that tall boy. He is my son,” he said. “When you looked at him, did he look like me?”

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