Wakilii

In the matter of a Petition for the Adoption of Gift Inziku(Infant) by Ross Alan Games & Lindsey Marey Games (ADOPTION CAUSE NO.07 OF 2018)

High Court · [2019] UGHCCD 201 · 2019 Petition Granted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance adoption petition under the Children Act
Decision
Adoption order granted; petitioners appointed adoptive parents with full parental rights and privileges

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

Court granted adoption petition by American citizens despite petitioners not meeting the statutory one-year continuous residence and fostering requirement, exercising discretion to waive this requirement in exceptional circumstances under section 45(4) of the Children Act as amended. Court found petitioners fit and proper adoptive parents and that adoption was in the best interest of the seven-year-old HIV-positive child whose biological father consented to the adoption and was unwilling and unable to care for her.

Outcome

Adoption order granted; petitioners appointed adoptive parents with full parental rights and privileges

Facts

Gift Inziku, born 6 March 2010, was HIV-positive and placed in Covenant Children's Home after her mother (also HIV-positive) died. Her biological father, Inziku Macharious, who is also HIV-positive and married to another woman, refused to care for the child, stating his wife was hostile to the child and he lacked resources for her specialized medical needs. American couple Ross Alan Games and Lindsey Marie Games began sponsoring Gift in July 2012 and became foster parents on 21 November 2016. They could not remain in Uganda continuously due to employment obligations in the United States but maintained contact and support through a power of attorney arrangement with Kidron Children's Home. The biological father gave irrevocable consent to the adoption. Petitioners were gainfully employed (combined annual income approximately US$68,000) and Lindsey worked as a children's nurse, making her well-equipped to handle Gift's medical condition.

Issues

  1. Whether the Petitioners qualify under Ugandan law to adopt the child.
  2. Whether this petition is in the best interest of the child as required under section 48(1)(b) and section 3 of the Children Act.

Orders

  • Ross Alan Games and Lindsey Marie Games are appointed the adoptive parents of the child Gift Inziku and the relationship of parents is hereby established with all rights and privileges incident thereto including the right of inheritance of the property of the adoptive parents.
  • The Registrar General of Births and Deaths is hereby directed to make an entry recording the particulars of this Adoption in the Adopted Children Register and to issue a Certificate to Gift Inziku reflecting the parental relationship established.
  • The Adoptive parents are at liberty to add their family name to the child's names.
  • This Adoption Order shall be furnished to the Consular Department in the Ministry of Foreign affairs and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
  • Costs of this Petition shall be borne by the Petitioners.

Rules and key headnotes

Intercountry Adoption — Waiver of Statutory Residence Requirement — Exceptional Circumstances
Section 45(4) of the Children Act as amended by the Children (Amendment) Act 2016 empowers the court to waive in exceptional circumstances the statutory requirement that adoptive parents must have continuously lived in Uganda and fostered the child for one year, where the prospective adoptive parents are gainfully employed abroad and need their employment to support the child, and where foster care is not a viable permanent solution.
Adoption — Constructive Fostering — Physical Custody Not Required
Fostering a child for the purposes of adoption does not require physical custody of the child for the entire period; it includes any conscious effort made by prospective adoptive parents to support a child through practical arrangements, including channeling support through a third party having physical custody, a concept termed constructive fostering.
Adoption — Best Interests of the Child — Paramountcy Principle
When a court deals with matters relating to the upbringing of children, the welfare and best interests of the child are paramount considerations, and adoption by foster parents who have demonstrated love, care, and capacity to provide for the child's needs is in the child's best interest where the biological parent has abandoned the child and there is no possibility of family reunification.
Adoption — Foster Care — Temporary vs. Permanent Placement
Foster care is not a permanent placement option for a child in need of parental love, care, and protection; where foster parents are interested in adopting a child who has no willing relative to take responsibility and the biological parent has given irrevocable consent, it is in the best interest of the child that the foster parents continue with responsibility on a permanent basis through adoption.

Legislation cited (12)

Cases cited (2)

  • In the Matter of Amari Daphne (FC No. 47 of 2017)
  • Deborah Joyce Alitubeera and Richard Masaba (Infants) (Civil Appeal No. 70 of 2011)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

In the matter of a Petition for the Adoption of Gift Inziku(Infant) by Ross Alan Games & Lindsey Marey Games (ADOPTION CAUSE NO.07 OF 2018) [2019] UGHCCD 201 (13 July 2019)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.