婚内出轨生育曾系该国传统，亲子鉴定为何导致婚姻和财产纠纷上升

据美联社2025年11月23日报道，在乌干达部族领袖摩西·库托伊调解的最敏感家庭纠纷中，最引人注目和争议的就是情绪激动的男性质疑为何自己的一些孩子长得不像自己。作为一名深谙先祖智慧的部族领袖，他知道这类事情是禁忌，绝不能对外人提及。但库托伊觉得他必须出面干预，以挽救那些有时已演变为暴力冲突的家庭纽约和濒临破裂的婚姻。

这位部族领袖近期对一位他正在帮助的满心怀疑的男性说：“就连我，长得也不像我父亲。”

在这个东非国家，随着基因检测的普及，亲子鉴定已成为家庭信念的一大考验。部分原因是有公开报道称，一些知名乌干达人最终发现自己并非部分子女的亲生父亲。

此事愈演愈烈，宗教人士和传统领袖如今被迫呼吁人们保持包容，并回归库托伊等乡村长者所秉持的非洲传统教义。

在去年的圣诞节礼拜上，乌干达圣公会大主教斯蒂芬·卡齐姆巴在布道中援引基督教信仰的基石圣母玛丽亚作为童贞女人生下耶稣的例子，试图劝阻信徒进行基因检测。他告诫道：“你去做了基因检测，发现四个孩子里只有两个是你的。所以就要像圣父约瑟夫那样，接纳孩子的现状，好好照顾他们。”

乌干达部族领袖摩西·库托伊

乌干达内务部运营着一家获政府认可的实验室，负责开展法院下令的相关调查。该部门表示，近期主动要求进行基因检测的男性数量大幅飙升，且检测结果往往“令人心碎”。

内务部发言人西蒙·彼得·蒙代伊今年7月对记者表示：“前来做基因检测的人中，约95%是男性，但超过98%的检测结果显示，这些男性并非孩子的亲生父亲。”他建议男性，“除非你心理素质极强”，否则不要去寻求亲子鉴定的基因证据。

基因检测中心在乌干达遍地开花，各类临床实验室在广播和公共场所大肆投放广告。在乌干达首都坎帕拉，一些客运出租车的后窗上也贴满了提供基因检测服务机构的广告。

在库托伊酋长担任市长的纳布马利小镇，大多数家庭无力承担DNA检测费用。在附近姆巴莱市唯一一家具备相关检测能力的私人实验室，检测费用超过200美元。

来找库托伊酋长求助的夫妻，找上门时往往已经几乎无法忍受彼此。他会用自嘲的笑话，以及分享自己在这个禁忌话题上的亲身经历来缓解紧张气氛。库托伊总爱举例说，尽管自己长得不像父亲，但还是被选为家族继承人，这也让他成为了巴吉苏族人的部族领袖。

库托伊称，在过去，如果一名男性公开谈论对亲子关系的质疑，社区长老会找上门来。他可能会受到惩罚，包括被强制缴纳罚金。库托伊说：“你绝不能公然说‘我怀疑这个孩子不是我的’。”他还补充道，醉酒也不能成为说这种话的借口。

乌干达圣公会大主教斯蒂芬·卡齐姆巴

二、亲子鉴定导致家庭纠纷和财产分配及离婚诉讼案大量增加

如今，乌干达的许多亲子鉴定纠纷既围绕家族族长去世后的财产分配展开，也出现在离婚诉讼中关于配偶赡养费的争议环节。

近期最受关注的一起案例中，法院下令的基因检测显示，坎帕拉一名富有的学者并非其三个孩子中一人的亲生父亲。这起案件被当地媒体广泛报道，凸显出亲子鉴定已是影响众多家庭的问题。

姆巴莱东部地区一家小型圣公会教区的牧师罗伯特·万萨拉讲述了他遇到的各类亲子关系纠纷。他回忆起有一名女性，在亡夫的儿子能被认定为遗产受益人前，先让他做了基因检测；还有两名男性争抢一个孩子，两人都认为孩子是自己的；另有一名男性因成年儿子的行为不像家人，提出要做亲子鉴定。

万萨拉回忆起2023年的一件事：“这名男子对儿子说，‘这种性格根本不是我们家的人会有的’。”

儿子的回应态度强硬，他对父亲说，同意做检测的条件是“你把我已故的母亲请来”，这一表态赢得了社区民众的认可。

万萨拉呼应了圣公会大主教卡齐姆巴的建议，称他总会告诉心存疑虑的男性，把这件事交给上帝来定夺。

他说：“无论孩子是以何种方式来到这个家，他们终究是孩子。在这个家里出生的孩子，就是你的孩子。即便在非洲传统中，也是如此。”

库托伊酋长称，那些不考虑后果就去做基因检测的男性，不过是在浪费时间。谈及非洲传统社会时，他说：“对我们而言，无论如何，大家都认定这个孩子就是你的。”

库托伊表示，否认亲子关系在过去是闻所未闻的，不过据了解，有些男性会悄悄采取一些措施，比如将有争议的儿子的土地继承权安排在远离祖传宅邸的地方，而传统上家族继承人本应在祖传宅邸中确立身份。

姆巴莱市“信心之道教会”的牧师安德鲁·穆滕古

三、亲子鉴定引发的纠纷成为宗教领袖调解的最多家庭问题

其他宗教领袖也组织了咨询会。姆巴莱市“信心之道教会”的牧师安德鲁·穆滕古表示，在他调解的800名教众间的诸多纠纷中，亲子关系是反复出现的话题。

上个月，他帮助了一名富商的妻子，这名女性的年幼女儿被其前男友当地一名理发师认领。在该女性承认自己有不忠行为后，穆滕古传唤了这名理发师，后者为了孩子的利益，同意停止公开宣称自己是孩子的父亲。

谈及这名理发师时，他说：“他到处吹嘘‘我是孩子的父亲’。这确实引发了不少问题，因为这名女性已有家庭，她的丈夫才是公认的孩子父亲。”

穆滕古称，他认为即便有宗教领袖的呼吁，只要检测费用降低，自己社区里会有更多男性去做基因检测。

就在最近一个下午，当库托伊29岁的儿子走过他们在纳布马利家中的院子时，就连库托伊自己也语气调侃地表示了怀疑。他的儿子肤色较浅，个子也比他高，库托伊借机开了个玩笑说：“你看这个高个子小伙子，这是我儿子。你看他，长得像我吗？”

More and more Ugandan men seek DNA paternity tests, often with heartbreaking results. By RODNEY MUHUMUZA on AP. November 23, 2025

Among the most sensitive family disputes Moses Kutoi mediates are those involving upset men questioning why some of their children don’t resemble them.

For the Ugandan clan leader attuned to the wisdom of his ancestors, the matter is taboo, never to be discussed with others. Yet Kutoi feels compelled to intervene in the hope of saving marriages that sometimes turn violent and are on the verge of breaking.

“Even me, I don’t resemble my father,” the clan leader recently told one disbelieving man he was helping.

Paternity has become a key test of faith in this east African country as DNA testing becomes more widely available, fueled in part by published reports of well-known Ugandans who eventually discovered they were not the biological fathers of some of their children.

The matter has become so heated that clerics and traditional leaders now urge tolerance and a return to the kind of African teachings that village elders like Kutoi say they stand for.

At last year’s Christmas Day service, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba, cited the example of the virgin birth of Jesus — the bedrock of Christian belief — in a sermon that sought to discourage DNA testing among the faithful.

“You take DNA and you find out that out of the four children, only two are yours,” he warned. “So just take care of the children the way they are, like Joseph did.”

Paternity disputes are proliferating

The Ministry of Internal Affairs runs a government-accredited lab that conducts court-ordered investigations. It says the number of men seeking voluntary DNA testing has soared recently, with often “heartbreaking” outcomes.

“About 95% of those coming for DNA tests are men, but more than 98% of the results show these men are not the biological fathers,” Simon Peter Mundeyi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told reporters in July.

His advice for men was not to seek DNA proof of paternity “unless you have a strong heart,” he said.

DNA testing centers have sprouted all over Uganda, with aggressive advertising by clinical labs on radio and in public spaces. Some passenger taxis in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, have had their back windows plastered with ads for facilities offering DNA testing.

In Nabumali, a small town where Kutoi is the mayor, most families can’t afford DNA testing fees, which exceed $200 at the only private laboratory equipped to do such work in nearby Mbale city.

The couples who seek Kutoi’s assistance can barely tolerate each other by the time they approach him. He tries to ease the tension with self-deprecating jokes and by sharing his own experience with the taboo topic. Kutoi likes to point out that although he doesn’t resemble his father, he was picked as the family heir anyway, allowing him to become a clan leader among the Bagisu people.

In the past, if a man spoke publicly about paternity concerns, community elders would pay him a visit. He could be punished, including being forced to pay a fine, Kutoi said.

“You are not supposed to pronounce that I am suspecting that this child is not mine,” said Kutoi, adding that being drunk was no excuse for such an utterance.

Disputes are tied to property and divorce proceedings

These days many paternity disputes in Uganda revolve around the distribution of property after the family patriarch has died, but also during divorce proceedings when spousal support is contested.

In the most prominent recent case, court-ordered DNA testing showed a wealthy academic in Kampala was not the father of one of his three children. That case has been widely covered by the local press, underscoring paternity as an issue affecting a wide range of families.

The Rev. Robert Wantsala, vicar of a small Anglican parish in the eastern district of Mbale, spoke about the array of paternity disagreements he has encountered. He recalled a woman who had her late husband’s son DNA tested before he could be considered an estate beneficiary, two men who tussled over a child each believed to be his and a man who told his grown son he wanted a DNA test for not behaving like a family member.

“The man said to his son, ‘This character is not in my family,’” Wantsala said, recalling an incident from 2023.

The son responded forcefully, winning the approval of his community by telling his father that he would agree to a test “on condition that you invite my (dead) mother.”

Wantsala echoed the advice of Kaziimba, the Anglican primate, saying he always tells doubting men to leave the matter to God.

“When they come, in whichever way they come, children are children,” he said. “A child that is born in the home, that is your child. Even in African tradition that is how it was.”

The men who seek DNA testing without thinking of the consequences are wasting their time, Kutoi said.

“For us, they knew the child belonged to you regardless,” he said, speaking of African traditional society.

Disowning children was unheard of, although some men were known to discreetly take measures like offering the disputed son a land inheritance far removed from the ancestral compound in which the heir would be installed, Kutoi said.

Faith leaders counsel families

Other religious leaders have organized counseling sessions.

Andrew Mutengu, pastor of Word of Faith Ministries in Mbale, said paternity is a recurring subject in many disputes he mediates among his 800 congregation members.

Last month he helped the wife of a rich businessman whose young daughter was claimed by a former boyfriend, a local barber. After the woman confessed she had been unfaithful, Mutengu summoned the barber, who agreed to stop publicizing his claim in the child’s interest.

“He goes around bragging that ‘I am the father,’” he said of the barber. “It was actually causing issues because this woman is in a home with another man who is actually the known husband.”

Mutengu said he believes more men in his community would seek DNA testing if it were cheaper, no matter faith leaders’ appeals.

Even Kutoi sounded doubtful when his 29-year-old son crossed the compound one recent afternoon at their home in Nabumali. The son is of light skin and taller than his father, who used the opportunity to tell a joke.

“You saw this tall boy. That is my son,” he said. “When you looked at him, did he look like me?”