Are you unknowingly raising another man’s child?

Dar es Salaam. You are happily married and love your wife and children so much. To make your children happy, you promise them a trip to Disneyland or elsewhere abroad during the end of year holidays.

To obtain a visa, the embassy requires that your family undergoes a DNA test to determine that you are family. You get the shock of your life when the test results reveal that one of ‘your’ four children does not match with yours.

Towards the end of last year, the Chief Government Chemist, Prof Samwel Manyele released shocking paternity statistics that got the nation talking.

According to the statistics, 49 per cent of the samples for DNA tests carried out by the Government Chemist Laboratory Agency, regarding paternity disputes last year did not match between the child and the alleged father.

Following the revelation, The Citizen did a random survey to find out more.

A cousin’s friend recently got the shock of her life when she learnt that her niece who was preparing to join her abroad was not her brother’s biological child.

The revelation followed a DNA test, which the niece underwent as a requirement for obtaining a visa. The DNA results revealed the two were not related and that was the end of the poor girl’s dream of living and studying abroad.

Last year, newspaper reports quoted statistics from the Chief Government Chemist’s office that showed a good number of fathers were raising children they had not fathered.

The Chief Government Chemist, Prof Samwel Manyele was quoted as saying that 49 per cent of the samples for DNA tests carried out by the Government Chemist Laboratory Agency regarding paternity disputes last year did not match between the children and the alleged fathers.

Prof Manyele told Sound Living that his office received 209 paternity cases whereby a total of 627 DNA  samples were investigated. He said a majority of clients who request for DNA tests to determine a child’s paternity are those with extra-marital affairs.

The newspaper reports last year set social media on fire as people debated on the matter, with many coming up with funny jokes on the subject.

It is because of such results that a father-daughter relationship between 37-year-old Charles Michael*, a businessman in Dar es Salaam, and his 20-year-old daughter, Margaret almost broke two years ago.

All these years, Charles believed Margaret, now a form four student, was his biological daughter until his wife, (Margaret’s step mother) hinted she was not his biological child. She advised him to take Margaret for a DNA test because Charles did not believe her.

Charles had a relationship with Margaret’s mother when he was a secondary student and did not doubt it when she told his parents she was pregnant. She was a virgin when he got intimate with her and the news that she had conceived came after Charles had returned to school.

When his child was born, his parents took care of her until when Charles completed schooling. He started living with his daughter as a bachelor before he married another woman.

Life was good until a few years later when his wife came up with claims that Margaret was not his child. She insisted they go for a DNA test when Charles did not buy into her story. He had no doubt Margaret was his daughter. 

“She kept nagging me sighting rumours in the village that Margaret was not my child,” states the father of three.

He loved his daughter so much that he did not want to believe his wife’s allegations. After all, Margaret’s mother was a virgin when we met.

“Never in my life had it crossed my mind that she could not be my blood,” explains Charles adding; “I thought my wife was jealous and that she did not want to raise Margaret together with her children.”

His wife’s nagging continued for six months until when Charles could not take it anymore. He succumbed to his wife’s pressure and decided to go for the test, which proved his wife’s claims.

The results dealt Charles a heavy blow. How could this be true? The daughter he had raised all this time was not his? Did her mother lie to him? He was at crossroads, unsure whether to send his daughter back to her mother or not.

Margaret’s mother who is married to another man with two children disputed the DNA results maintaining Margaret was Charles’ daughter. She claims Charles was her first boyfriend and that she had been with anyone else when she realised she had conceived.

“I turned to drinking and at some point had to travel out of the country for a while to unwind,” says Charles.

He says it hurts when he sees Margaret for he can’t bring himself to believe she is not his daughter. He is still in denial with part of him still doubting the DNA results.

Charles still loves his daughter and does not want to hear anything that will separate her from him. She will be his daughter as long as he lives and doesn’t want her to ever find out about the DNA test.

Modesta Kamoga, a psychologist from the University of Dodoma says couples undergo DNA tests when they suspect unfaithfulness in their partners.

She says some women cheat when they find out their husbands are not faithful. But Modesta says when a man realises a child is not his, he could end up killing or harming his wife or both.

A recent story of a Kawe resident who brutally butchered his wife and child in Bagamoyo hit the headlines as photos of the deceased went viral on social media. It was claimed that the man believed their child belonged to another man.

Ashura,* who lives in Temeke admits she had children out of wedlock because her husband could not give her children for more than six years and all the blame was directed to her.

“My husband’s family used to blame me saying I was barren. I was not happy in my marriage and a day never passed without a fight with either my husband or his family,” says the mother of two.

When Ashura finally gave birth to twins, she was relieved because they resembled her. That way, it was easy to conceal her little secret. Her husband did not suspect anything but his sister and mother did. They claimed the children were not their blood.

Ashura says she cheated because she did not want her husband to leave her for another woman. She also needed peace with her husband’s family.

“Sometimes the humiliation you get from your husband and his relatives forces you to cheat,” says Ashura.

Eventually, Ashura and her husband called it quits after a DNA test proved the children were not her husband’s.

Juma Omary, who works with a bank in the city, says men decide to go for a DNA test when they lose trust in their relationships.

“If your wife is not faithful and you suspect the child is not yours, the best thing to do is to go for a DNA test,” he says.

However, he is not ready for that, fearing the results could affect his family relationship. However, he says he would have no choice but to undergo the test if forced by circumstances.

Leonard Mgonja 35, a father of two who works in the media industry would rather have his wife confess to avoid problems after negative DNA results. Leonard believes in the DNA test by 98 per cent.

Prof Manyele says apart from determining a parent’s legitimacy for a child, others undertake the test to determine blood relations among family members in order to resolve inheritance issues.

Some embassies also demand a DNA test before issuing a visa. DNA tests is also done  for the purpose of keeping an individual’s records for future reference.

DNA can be used also to identify the body of an unrecognisable dead person, it is also used in crime investigations such as rape, murder, possession of human organs, theft and many others.

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