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A Kenyan man has been ordered to hand over custody of his daughter to an estranged American wife.

Senior Resident Magistrate Festus Terer ordered Ndiritu Wachira Muriuki to hand over the six-year-old child and all her travel documents to her mother Emely Sarita Castillo.

Castillo, who was represented by lawyer Danstan Omari, was granted orders allowing her to travel to New Jersey in the United States of America, where she resides with the minor.

Terer also ordered that the custody arrangements of the minor be dealt with as per the laws of the USA.

According to court documents filed by Castillo, the child was born on October 18, 2015, before she and Muriuki were married. The two solemnised their union on March 22, 2016, but later got divorced in 2020.

“The minor would be present during most of the occasions when the plaintiff was inflicting physical abuse towards me and this affected the minor mentally. Even as we lived together, I had to shoulder most of the minor’s needs with little to no help,” she stated.

After the divorce, the two signed a parental agreement granting them shared physical custody of the child.

“However, during August 1 access, we had planned that I would take the minor to the Dominican Republic so that she would meet my parents and relatives since the minor had been to Kenya three times previously,” she wrote.

“The plaintiff refused this informal agreement and stated that he would go with the child to Kenya during his access days,” stated Castillo. Muriuki is said to have subsequently brought the child to Kenya without Castillo’s consent, breaching the shared custody agreement.