The two-year legal battle over the control of an estimated Sh16 billion estate left behind by the late Uasin Gishu farmer-cum-politician Jackson Kibor could come to end after his family members proposed mediation. The 29 listed beneficiaries, led by the late tycoon’s daughter Loice Kibor, expressed optimism that they will agree on the mode of distribution for their father’s estate through an out-of-court settlement.

According to her, the move is long overdue and will help restore cordial family relations that have been damaged in the bruising court battle. She argued that mediation will not only save the image of the family but also protect the legacy of their late father.

“As a family, we are not opposed to mediation. We are going to seek the court to allow us to try to solve the matter through mediation when we will appear before the presiding Judge Emily Ominde next week,” stated Ms Loice.

The late Kibor died in March 2022 at a private hospital in Eldoret town, aged 80 years and leaving behind three surviving widows after the first wife Mary predeceased him. He also left behind a vast estate spread across Rift Valley, Nairobi and Mombasa, all estimated at Sh16 billion.

Loice urged her family members to embrace mediation through the help of the elders and professional mediators.

Contested Will

In a quick rejoinder however, the tycoon’s youngest wife Eunitah Kibor insisted that she will only embrace the dialogue being pushed by her step-children if it will factor in the contested Will that was left by her late husband.

“I am not against the mediation process but we must respect the Will of my late husband on how he wanted his estate to be distributed among all genuine beneficiaries,” said Ms Eunitah.

Two forensic audits of the Will in the estate have produced conflicting results. The audit conducted by a private investigator indicated that the said Will was genuine while the audit of the same Will by experts from Directorate of Criminal investigations (DCI) in Nairobi termed the entire Will a forgery.

The bone of contention in the Will centred on the signature alleged to be that of late Kibor’s signature, in a Will where the youngest wife Eunitah Jelimo Kibor and Eldoret based advocate Jonah Kimutai Korir are named as executors.

The independent examiner was supposed to ascertain whether the signature on the Will was consistent with the signature of the deceased. Upon completion of his verification, he observed that the signatures in question shared similar individual writing.

“My conclusion is that questioned and known signatures do share similar individual writing characteristics meaning is from common origin. Also late J.K Kibor signatures are complex and any attempt to simulate them, the difference will be obvious,” stated the expert in the document signed by a forensic document examiner.

Incapacitated

A forensic report on the same documents examined by experts from DCI following a court order instructing experts to perform the same concluded that the signatures were made by different authors.

The DCI detectives were instructed to examine the signature following forgery complaints raised by a section of the parties. The issues of forgery were raised during hearing of the matter on January 24, 2024 before Justice Reuben Nyakundi who has since recused himself from the matter following complaints by a section of the family.

A section of the family members had accused Eunitah of interfering with the Will to favour herself in the distribution of the estate which includes more than 5,000 acres of agricultural land, commercial plots and movable assets located in various parts of the country. They claim that the deceased was not competent to make decisions as he was battling illness by the time the Will was allegedly signed.

The experts are expected to testify their varied findings on November 11 before Justice Ominde, who replaced Justice Nyakundi in the matter.