Musoke died last year. 7 children and his 3rd wife survived him. Of the 7 children, only 2 were from his 3rd marriage. In the distribution of Musoke’s property, the surviving wife told the other 5 children to go to their mothers. Unfortunately, all these children are still in school and they would like to know what to do about this?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
First, the Ugandan succession law says that all children, (born in marriage or not) have the same rights as children of the deceased under the law.
If the deceased, like Musoke, leaves behind a spouse (in this case a wife), then the law gives that spouse priority to apply to manage the property and estate of the deceased (letters of administration (authority to manage the estate of the deceased) before any other person. If such a spouse gets these letters of administration, he/she has a duty to manage and distribute the property of the deceased fairly. Therefore, an unfair distribution of the estate (such as chasing away some children) may be a failure of the spouse’s duty as an administrator of the estate.
To avoid such disputes, we suggest that whenever a spouse is getting letters of administration and there are children that may not be his/hers, the spouse should jointly apply for the letters of administration together with representatives of the other children so all the children’s interests can be catered for.
If there is a will, and this spouse applies for and gets letters of probate (authority to carry out the wishes of the deceased in the will), then he/she should follow the wishes of the deceased as per will.
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