'I will live longer without her', Jackson Kibor tells court

Controversial Uasin Gishu veteran politician Jackson Kibor on Thursday said he wants to divorce his wife of 51 years so he could live longer.

Mr Kibor, 83, who is seeking to divorce his second wife, Josephine Jepkoech Kibor, said he believed he would live longer if he was granted the divorce.

“I don’t want this woman. I will live longer without her. She has subjected me to a lot of pain and psychological torture,” Mr Kibor told Eldoret Chief Magistrate Charles Obulutsa when the hearing of the divorce case resumed.

Mr Kibor, who has three other wives, told the court that on one occasion, Josephine attacked him with a huge stone when he went to visit her at their Kipkabus home.

The two married in 1965 and have seven children.

Ms Kibor has, however, contested the divorce, saying she loved him and was not interested in leaving him.

She said she screamed in court last year when the case began to demonstrate her love for him.

PROTECT

She made the remarks when she was responding to inquiries by Mr Kibor’s lawyer, Amos Magut, who wanted to know why she screamed in court during the previous hearing of the matter.

“I screamed in court because of bitterness from learning that my husband, whom I love so much, has moved to court seeking to divorce me,” Mrs Kibor told the magistrate.

She said she would do everything in her power to protect her marriage.

“We can’t divorce, I took vows and we have children who are looking at us as role models,” said Mrs Kibor.

Mr Kibor, however, dismissed her claims of love, saying she never allowed him to return to their matrimonial home and “has been arrogant, disrespectful and hostile.”

PETITION

“The respondent has continually denied the petitioner his conjugal rights and deserted him ..., showing lack of interest in marriage thereby leaving him in loneliness, mental anguish and psychological torture,” said the divorce petition.

He further accused his wife of leaving their Kipkabus home to go to Canada without informing him, a move he said showed utter disrespect for him.

In her response, she denied all the accusations, stating that they were all lies and that she has been living happily with her husband since 1965 though he married two other wives.

The hearing of the case will continue on August 1, when Mr Kibor’s eldest daughter is expected to testify against his father.