Sudanese kids caught in custody, immigration issues
Dec 21, 2005 (KENT, Washington) — Four children whose Sudanese refugee parents died in a homicide-suicide may stay where they are now living for 30 days while authorities try to unsnarl custody, paternity and immigration issues, a court official says.
King County Superior Court Commissioner Hollis C. Holman granted the time Tuesday for state child welfare officials to sort through the aftermath of the deaths of Jesika Poni Wani, 33, and Wani James-Soka, 34, on Dec. 12, the King County Journal reported Wednesday.
Investigators believe James-Soka fatally stabbed his wife in the chest at the family’s home in Covington, then committed suicide by driving his car across the center line of Washington 18 and ramming an oncoming truck east of Maple Valley.
Since then, three of the children in the family — Betty Wani, 17; Rudu Wani, 6, and Emmanuel Wani, 19 months, have been staying with Margaret Nalonga of Federal Way, a cousin of Jesika Wani who said she wants custody of them.
Samuel Wani, 14, has been living in Covington with Jesse and Dawn Clapper, whose teenage sons met and befriended him while playing basketball.
The two teenagers sat with court-appointed lawyers during the hearing, which was attended by about two dozen members of the region’s closely knit Sudanese immigrant community at the Regional Justice Center.
“We want to make sure the kids stay a part of our community,” said Kenyi Hakim, a family friend. “We don’t want them to lose our culture, because if you don’t have a culture, you don’t have an identity.”
Hakim said the homicide-suicide finding was a surprise, but Fikita Bogale, who worked with Jesika Wani at a local inn, said she had complained of her husband frequently hitting and otherwise abusing her.
Child welfare officials said during the hearing that Samuel Wani told them his birth parents both died in the civil war in Sudan when he was 2 years old and that he joined the Wani family as a young child in a refugee camp in Uganda before they came to the United States.
Betty Wani has said that her mother died in the war, James-Soka was her father and she believes he also was the father of Samuel Wani.
Naomi Aina, a Child Protective Services caseworker, said she would try to determine paternity and locate any other relatives who might have custody claims.
The court commissioner, noting that the younger boys are both native-born U.S. citizens, also directed that social workers to put the teenagers in touch with lawyers to resolve any potential immigration issues.