5 Controversies Mzee Kibor Will be Remembered For

Uasin Gishu politician Jackson Kibor signs a condolence book at the late Mzee Daniel arap Moi's Kabarak house in February 2020
Uasin Gishu politician Jackson Kibor signs a condolence book at the late Mzee Daniel arap Moi's Kabarak house in February 2020
File

On Thursday morning, the country woke up to the news of the demise of Jackson Kiprotich Kibor, popularly known as Mzee Kibor. The astute farmer and businessman died after a long illness.

The Moi-era politician is remembered for many things. However, he stood out as a lover of controversies who never shied away from making his moves and speaking his mind. 

Kenyans.co.ke has compiled a five major controversies in Mzee Kibor's life.

Mzee Jackson Kibor (centre) in court in 2019
Mzee Jackson Kibor (centre) in court in 2019
File

Suing His Sons

In 2021, Mzee Kibor took his sons to court over a land ownership dispute. The businessman had evicted them from a 1,200-acre parcel of land he had allocated them. He, however, changed his mind and asked the court to revert the ownership to him.

The land dispute arose after he argued that he was suspicious on the paternity of the six sons. 

He went ahead to demand that DNA tests be conducted on all of them so as he would ascertain they were truly his children before they could inherit his property.

Kibor divorced his wife, Naomi Jeptoo in 2018 and went ahead to claim that they were not his sons.

“I never married Jeptoo. I doubt her sons are my biological sons and will have a DNA test conducted to prove that they are indeed my biological children before sharing to them my property,” he said in a past interview with The standard. 

His six sons agreed to take the DNA test. The results were, however, not made public.



Frequent Divorce Cases

Mzee Kibor was a man of many wives. On several occasions, he made headlines with his divorces.

An Eldoret court in 2018 allowed Kibor to divorce his third wife, Naomi Jeptoo. The court termed their marriage as “irretrievably broken” as they two could not see eye-to-eye.

The year before, the successful businessman divorced his second wife, Josephine Jepkoech, on grounds of desertion and cruelty.

The divorces saw him christened the chairman of the men’s conference.



Shooting at His Son

In 2017, the prominent farmer was arrested and had his firearm confiscated after he allegedly attempted to shoot his son over a land dispute.

Kibor, however, denied shooting his son saying he fired in the air in self defence after his sons threatened him over the land dispute.



Inciting Violence 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) named him as one of the key suspects in the 2007 Post Election Violence in which over 1,300 people were killed and over half a million others displaced.

In a past interview with an international media house, Kibor reportedly admitted to propagating the post election violence. 

He spent time in police cells after alleged tribal incitement in 2008.



Money

Mzee Kibor was a prominent farmer. However, in a past interview, he narrated that he served as a police officer in the Moi-regime.

He went on to narrate that he made his wealth by playing darts. He honed his skills in darts while at police college. 

He then participated and won a dart competition and pocketed Ksh35,000 in the 70s. He later acquired 836 acres of land from the prize money.

{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/_3786vG6RJg.jpg?itok=EMAdDs3X","video_url":"","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}

  • . . . . .