Prominent Eldoret farmer and politician Jackson Kiprotich Kibor suffered a blow after the Court of Appeal in Kisumu temporarily stopped him from evicting his three sons from a controversial property he claims belongs to him.
The ruling on an application filed by Mr Kibor’s sons —Mr Elkana Kipleting, Mr Evans Kipkosgei and Mr Eric Kipchumba — temporary stopped the execution of the orders issued in Eldoret on May 6, 2020 by Justice Anthony Ombwayo of the Environment and Land Court.
The court had directed the Uasin Gishu County Land Registrar to nullify and cancel consolidation, subdivision and issuance of title numbers Soy/Kapsang Block 10 (Samitoi) 13, 14 and 16, which are currently owned by the applicants.
Aggrieved by this decision, Mr Kibor's sons filed a notice of appeal and applied for certified copies of the proceedings and the judgement with a view to filling records of the appeal.
The three-judge bench comprising justices Hannah Okwengu, Fatuma Sichale and Daniel Musinga ruled that the sons had filed an appeal and that in the event that Mr Kibor evicts them and disposes of the suit property, the appeal will be rendered nugatory.
In the notice filed at the appellate court in Kisumu, the sons argue that the Land court judge failed to find that their father personally gifted the land to them and processed the transfers.
They also feel their father has developed hostility and intolerance against them despite having blood relations.
But Mr Kibor maintained that the intended appeal is not arguable, saying he has no intention of evicting them from the suit property.
But the bench felt unless the order sought is granted, there is no telling what the respondent may decide to do with the suit properties before an appeal is heard and determined.
"We are satisfied that the applicants have satisfied the twin principles for grant of an order of stay of execution of the trial court’s judgement as sought,” said the three-judge bench.
In May 2020, Justice Ombwayo declared that Mr Kibor was the legal owner of the land and that his sons did not have valid documents to claim the ownership of the property.
The court consequently ordered the defendants in the case, Mr Elkana Kipleting, Mr Evans Kipkosgei, Mr Eric Kipchumba, Mr Raymond Kibitok, Mr Edwin Kipkoech and Mr Ezekiel Kibor, together with their farm employees, to vacate the land within 150 days, failure to which they would be forcibly evicted.
Mr Kibor, who owns several acres of land in Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties, managed to convince the court to strike out documents showing that the land in dispute was transferred to his embattled sons.
He had accused his sons of trying to bar him from cultivating his land despite having a court order allowing him to utilise the property.
On December 31, 2020, the tycoon won a case against his sons and his employees, who had appealed the lower court’s ruling over the same piece of land in Soy, Uasin Gishu County.
Justice Stephen Kibunja of the Environment and Land court dismissed an application filed by six former employees seeking to reverse the lower court’s ruling which had declared Mzee Kibor as the rightful owner of the land.
In an affidavit to the court, the six cited instances where the tycoon had allegedly planned to evict them from the land.
The employee’s application was supported by two of Mr Kibor’s sons, Elkanah Kibor and Ezekiel Kibor, and a daughter-in-law Michelle Chebet.
Justice Kibunja dismissed the claims by the former employees and Mr Kibor’s sons, affirming the lower court’s decision, noting that their argument lacked merit.
The genesis of the feud between Mzee Kibor and his sons over the said piece of land started in 2016 after the controversial politician moved to court to block his sons from subdividing the land.
