Prominent Uasin Gishu county farmer and politician Jackson Kibor who passed on after a long illness on Wednesday was not new to controversy.
Kibor, 88, had been at loggerheads with his sons; Elkanah Kipleting, Evans Kipkosgei and Erick Kipchumba over his estate.
In 2016, he moved to court to block the transfer of parcels of land to his sons in an unresolved family dispute.
Kibor who personally appeared in court then vowed that his sons should look for their own wealth.
“I’ve worked hard to get my wealth and they should look for theirs. Nobody will have a share of land so long as I’m alive,” Kibor said.
He got a reprieve after the Eldoret Lands and Environment Court ruled in 2020 ruled in his favour.
The octogenarian was a man of many wives and on several occasions, he hit headlines for divorce cases.
In 2017, a court in Eldoret allowed him to divorce his third wife about a year after divorcing his second wife with whom they had married for over 50 years.
The farmer recently caused a standoff at a street in Eldoret after he clashed with county askaris who clamped his high-end vehicle for packing in the wrong place.
When he came out of the bank, an agitated Kibor bought a hacksaw and cut the clamp to the chagrin of the public.
“Mlikuwa wapi tukikomboa hii nchi? Nyinyi ni vijana wadogo sana,” he told the county government officers before driving off.
In a move seen as foreseeing his own death, Kibor had two years ago said he was ready to die after achieving all he wanted in life.
He once got into trouble with powers that be after he dared President Moi to name and groom a successor.
He was subsequently arrested and taken to State House where he was forced to kneel and retract his statement.
He later explained that his only worry was that with multi-party politics, President Moi’s time was limited to two terms ‘and those who love him wanted him to select a successor as good as he was’.
In March 2017, Kibor was arrested for attempting to shoot his son at his farm in Kabenes in Ziwa, Soy constituency ploughing his land.
He however defended himself that he was only acting on self-defence.
“I only brandished the gun because my sons who were armed with machetes and rungus wanted to attack me,” he defended himself.
Until his death, his vehicle had sharp blades fitted at the back which he said was meant to ward off people who were planning to plough his farm at night.
At 88, Kibor was a strongman who could still drive himself to and from Eldoret to Nairobi and back.
According to Kibor’s daughter Loice Kibor, her father who was aged 88 passed on after a long illness on Wednesday night at St. Lukes’s Hospital in Eldoret.
“Yes, we’ve lost him. Our father has been using medical oxygen since October 2020 after he contracted COVID-19,” Ms Kibor said in a statement.
Mr Kibor apparently had an oxygen cylinder at his home and another in his vehicle anytime he ventured outside his palatial home.
Notably, was born at Lelmokwo in Nandi county to a very poor family and was orphaned after his parents died when he was barely five years old.
He dropped out of school in 1957 in Class 5 because he could not pay Ksh1.50 per year. He later became a herdsboy, farmhand and driver.
He once served as a KANU chairman in Uasin Gishu County during retired President Daniel Moi’s regime.
He later fell out with Moi and joined ODM.
Mr Kibor would later become one of the wealthiest farmers in the North Rift owning more than 4,000 acres of land and other properties, including real estate in several parts of the country.
He was a staunch AIC church follower and had given land to more than eight churches and a mosque. He bought more than 45 acres to construct Kipkabus Secondary School.
