Nakalembe lost all trust in human beings when she lost her husband in an accident. Some of her in-laws showed up and carried everything off that was in the house. Luckily, some things were left in Kampala, and there was a lot of money in the bank.
Nakalembe has never remarried, and her four children are growing up well. All except Jembe, who joined the local gang which uses weighing stones to rob people. Jembe has even sold his mother's chairs to get money to bet.
Nakalembe is worried that if one day she dies, Jembe will sell or take away all the property she has worked for and leave nothing for his sister and brothers. She wants to write a will because they told her it will protect her property. Her only issue is she does not trust anyone to see or touch her will. So, can she keep it secret and not let anyone write or sign on it? Must she have a witness sign, or can she announce in a family meeting that she has a will?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
A witness is a person who knows about something that happened. (they saw, heard, or felt it). When it comes to wills, a witness who saw the owner of the will sign it and can confirm that it belongs to the deceased (also known as a testator) who wrote the will.
For this reason, the law says the person making the will must have at least two people who verify that he/she (the testator) has signed the will, and this is proven by those two people (the witnesses) signing on every page of the will as well. So, if a witness does not sign on a particular page of the will, that page will be discarded.
Although the witnesses do not have to sign at the same time, they must still sign in the presence of the person making the will.
If the witnesses were not present when the owner of the will was signing, the owner must confirm to the witnesses that he or she signed on the will and the signature belongs to him or her.
However, a witness to a will is not supposed to read or know what the will says. This is because a will is a secret document, and what is in the will should only be discovered when the willmaker dies.
So, Nakalembe does not need to worry about keeping her will a secret. All she has to do is tell the witnesses that they are signing her will and then she can cover its contents so that her witnesses do not read what it says and just show the witness where to sign.
#Wills4Women #FATEProjectUG, #FATEProject#InspireInclusion #AccelerateProgress #InvestInWomen #InvestinWomenAccelerateProgress
Download your will template here: https://barefootlaw.org/wills/
Source: BarefootLawyers
Comments
Post a Comment