Interesting facts about Mzee Jackson Kibor

Prominent farmer and politician Jackson Kibor with his wife Yunita outside their house in Kabenes, Uasin Gishu County. [Kevin Tunoi, Standard]

Mzee Jackson Kibor, a former councillor, a farmer, a businessman and a known polygamist died on Wednesday night, March 16 after a two-year battle with illness.

Kibor was pronounced dead at the St. Luke's Orthopaedic and Trauma Hospital in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, where he had been admitted for Covid-19-related complications.

A known polygamist, Kibor, who died aged 88, was a man of the people. He loved good things that money can buy.

An amiable character with a husky voice and a high sense of humour, the late Kibor loved big cars, farming, and his women.

The Standard takes a look at some of the interesting facts about Mzee Kibor, the fallen men’s conference “chairman”.

The late Kibor was born in 1934 in Kipkabus, Uasin Gishu County. He became a partial orphan at a tender age following the death of his father in the mid-1930s.

The palatial house of the late Jackson Kibor located at Chepkoilel area in Uasin Gishu County. [Kevin Tonui, Standard]

At the age of nine, he had already lost both parents after his mother, who had moved with him to Nandi County, passed on.

He attended Lelmokwo Primary School, where he dropped out of school at Class Five due to lack of Sh3 school fees, a lot of money back then.

After dropping out of school, Kibor sold wattle tree-bark to make ends meet.

He picked up an interest in farming from his former employers, Jonathan Kibogy and Churchill Masit, both of whom had hired him as a driver.

Kibogy and Masit were wealthy businessmen and farmers from Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet counties respectively.

Kibor’s first major investment was an 840-acre parcel of land that he bought in 1960 using a Sh55,000 loan from a local bank.

Nine years later, he acquired an additional 1,200-acre parcel of land in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County and another 400 acres in Moiben, Uasin Gishu County.

He splashed Sh220,000 on the land in Kitale, and an additional Sh12 million for the Moiben one. He used the parcels of land for large-scale agriculture and dairy farming.

Jackson Kibor walks around his expansive compound in Kabenes, Uasin Gishu County. He had gone to court seeking orders to compel his children to undergo a DNA test to ascertain paternity from his now divorced wife Naomi. [Kevin Tunoi, Standard]

A family patriarch, Kibor was a proud polygamist and a father of many.

He had 26 children – 15 sons and 11 daughters – from his four wives.

Kibor bore eight children (five daughters and three sons) with his first wife, Mary Kibor, who died in 2010.

The “chairman” also had eight other children (four sons and four daughters) with his second wife, Josephine Jepkoech, who he married on February 27, 1965.

Ten years later, in 1975, he married a third wife, Naomi Jeptoo, with whom he shared six sons.

The late Kibor married his fourth wife, Yunita, with whom they got four children (two sons and two daughters.)

Just five years after marrying Yunita, Kibor divorced Josephine (the second wife) in 2017, then dissolved his union with Naomi one year later.

Kibor once disowned six of his sons after questioning their paternity. He later demanded that his sons undergo DNA tests.

A controversial figure, Kibor once threatened to shoot his eldest son, Ezekiel, over a land dispute.

Kibor served as a councillor (now Member of County Assembly) for two wards, Wareng and Kipkabus.

Before his death, Kibor is said to have managed to unite his family.

In February 2022, he gave each of his 15 sons 200 acres of land, while his 11 daughters were allocated 100 acres of land each.

Jackson Kibor gets baptised by retired Bishop Silas Yego in Eldoret on May 3, 2021. He said he took the initiative as a sign of surrender to the will of God. [Christopher Kipsang, Standard]

He was baptised in 2021.