IN RE a Petition by Emilie Roberte Mary Larter for the adoption of Mukama Adam Paul (Adoption Cause No. 036 of 2018)

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court granted an adoption order in favour of a British national petitioner for a four-year-old Ugandan male child. The Court held that the petitioner satisfied the statutory requirements for inter-country adoption under the Children Act as amended, including residency, fostering period, and good conduct. The Court further held that special circumstances justified a sole female applicant adopting a male child where the petitioner had cared for the child since infancy, the biological father was unable to provide care, and the bond between petitioner and child served the child's paramount welfare interests.

Outcome

Adoption order granted; child may travel to the United Kingdom with adoptive parent

Facts

Emilie Roberte Mary Larter, a 26-year-old British national residing in Uganda since 2014, petitioned to adopt Mukama Adam Paul, a four-year-old Ugandan male child. The child was born on 10 September 2014 to Mwami David and Nangobi Sarah. The mother died two days after birth. The father, a peasant farmer with seven other children from a polygamous family, was unable to care for the child due to financial constraints. Days after birth, the child was placed in Whisper Children Home. The petitioner, then a volunteer teacher at the Home, offered to sponsor the child and subsequently obtained a foster care placement certificate on 17 August 2016. She fostered the child under supervision of the probation and social welfare officer for over one year. The biological father and maternal relatives consented to the adoption. The petitioner worked as a teacher trainer earning UGX 36 million annually and intended to take the child to the United Kingdom to live with her parents and brother.

Issues

1. Whether the petitioner, a British national, fulfilled the statutory requirements for inter-country adoption under s.46 of the Children Act.
2. Whether special circumstances existed to justify a sole female applicant adopting a male child under s.45(3) of the Children Act.
3. Whether granting the adoption order would be in the best interests and welfare of the child.

Orders

• The petitioner Emilie Roberte Mary Larter is granted an order of adoption in respect of the child Mukama Adam Paul.
• The petitioner may travel with the child to the United Kingdom or any other part of the world in order to fulfill her obligations as an adoptive parent.
• The Registrar of Births and Deaths shall make an entry recording this adoption in the Adopted Children Register.
• This adoption be furnished to the consular department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Kampala and at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in Kampala.
• The petitioner shall meet the costs of this application.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (9)

• Children Act Cap 59 s.3(1)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.3(3)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.45(3)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.46(1)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.46(4)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.46(5)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.46(6)
• Children Act Cap 59 s.46(7)
• Adoption Rules SI 59-1

Cases cited (5)

• Payne v Payne [2001] EWCA 166
• B v B [1940] Ch 54
• Deborah Alitubeera (Civil Appeal No. 70 of 2011)
• In Re AM (Adoption Cause No. 12 of 2017)
• J Vrs C AC 668

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.