Court directs Kibor's will be put to a forensic audit amid dispute

The High Court in Eldoret has ordered the contested will allegedly authored by late prominent businessman Jackson Kibor be subjected to forensic investigation.

Justice Reuben Nyakundi directed the Director of Criminal Investigations in Nairobi to investigate the will to establish its authenticity and help settle a bitter dispute among the beneficiaries.

Justice Nyakundi on Wednesday ordered the fourth widow - Eunita Jelimo to personally surrender and deliver the original copy of the will to the DCI headquarters in Kiambu within 10 days.

"The Director of Criminal Investigations shall be at liberty to secure any samples, tools, writings from the deceased estate in collaboration with the petitioner to enhance the forensic analysis. The DCI to conduct a forensic document examination on the original will and file a report in court on February 26, 2024 for a scheduled status conference of the case," the court order read.

The late Kibor's family including four widows and 29 siblings are engaged in a court battle over the will which is said to bear Kibor's wishes in regard to sharing of his estate valued at over Sh16 billion.

Eunitah, who is listed as one of the executors of the will, had moved to the court seeking to have it adopted, but all other family members objected to the will terming it a forgery.

The court has also allowed parties in the dispute to file new evidence on the same. In November, lawyer Ken Maiyo, representing some objectors including Kibor's eldest son Philip, told Justice Nyakundi that his clients wanted the will examined by a forensic document examiner to determine its validity.

This was after the court was told the deceased was mentally sound when he gave instructions on how he wanted his assets distributed among family members, churches, squatters, and persons he owed.

Lawyer Jonah Korir, who drafted the will, and is listed as an executor alongside Eunitah tabled the document in court.

Korir claimed months before Kibor's death, he called him for a meeting at his daughter's Elgon View residence in the outskirts of Eldoret town, where he gave him instructions to draft his will.

He claimed to have represented Kibor on several cases, especially at the Environment and Land Courts, but declined to mention the cases when questioned during cross-examination by the objector's advocates.

Korir dismissed claims by the objectors, including Kibor's second and third wives, that the deceased was sickly and not of his mind at the time the will was claimed to have been drafted.

"To the best of my knowledge, the late Kibor was of sound mind at the time the Will was drafted, and he could comprehend what he was doing. He gave his instructions in the Nandi/Keiyo dialect while I translated his wishes into English," said Korir.

He further told the court that the deceased's Will was executed on February 27, 2021, at Eldoret High Court's parking yard and witnessed by two lawyers namely, Joseph Songok and David Korir.

Korir told the court how the late tycoon invited him to his rural home in Kabenes village in Soy Sub County, where he had hosted his close family members, relatives, friends, and church and political leaders.

He said the late Kibor wanted to disclose the content of his Will to his family members and wanted him to read the summary of the contents of the Will to them.

He argued that some discrepancies pointed out in the will by the objector's advocates, including different dates, were only 'bona fide errors'.

Kibor died on March 16, 2022, at St Luke's Hospital in Eldoret.