She is my wife, but I have not slept in the house I built her for the last 30 years

Jackson Kibor filed for divorce at an Eldoret court and accused his wife Josephine Jepkoech, 67, of desertion, cruelty and interfering with his ownership of an 800-acre piece of land in Kipkabus, Uasin Gishu county.

He told senior principal magistrate Charles Obulutsa that he has not spent time with Josephine for more than 30 years.

He asked the court to cancel their marriage certificate, which was issued in 1965. “She is my wife, but I have not slept in the house I built for her for the last 30 years. She does not respect me and she has been abandoning the farm for long, causing the death of my livestock and chickens,” Kibor claimed.

Kibor filed the Divorce Cause No. 9 of 2014 petition against Jepkoech who, according to a marriage certificate approved under the Colony and Protectorate Law of Kenya, he married on February 27, 1965.

According to the petition,the two resided in his Kipkabus farm and got eight children – Loice Chemeli, Irene Chepleting, Stephen Kiprono, Julius Kipruto, David Tirop, Carolyne Cheptanui, Samuel Kipkemei and Susan Chebet with the latter passing on.

“Since the celebration of the marriage, the petitioner lived with the wife until November 2003 when the petitioner left the matrimonial home as a result of cruelty and inhospitality by the respondent,” read part of the petition.

Kibor, 82, admitted to having four wives, though his first wife has since died. Jepkoech is his second wife. He stated in his petition that Jepkoech never allowed him to return to the matrimonial home and has been arrogant, disrespectful and hostile to him.

“The respondent has continually denied the petitioner his conjugal rights and deserted him with her companionship showing lack of interest in marriage, thereby leaving him in loneliness, mental anguish and psychological torture,” he further stated in the petition.

Appearing before Principal Magistrate Charles Obulutsa on November 28, 2016, Kibor testified that his wife had shown utter disrespect to him, quarreled with and verbally assaulted him, reiterating that their marriage was irretrievable and should be dissolved.

During the cross-examination by his counsel Mark Waziri Omollo and the respondent’s lawyer Amos Magut, Kibor however contradicted his prayer number six in the petition stating that his wife had ignored, rejected and disregarded all attempts to reconcile.

“I have never involved the family and friends to solve the issue because I am a good husband with leadership skills, and never have any of my wives left our matrimonial homes. I have not slept in the Kipkabus house for over 30 years and we just meet with her during family ceremonies for formality purposes,” said Kibor.

He further accused Jepkoech of deserting t h e i r Kipkabus home to go to Canada without informing him, a move he described as total disrespect.

In her response, Jepkoech, 68, denied all the accusations, stating in her response to the petition dated June 17, 2014 that they were all lies and she has been living happily with the petitioner since 1965 despite him marrying two other wives.

“The petitioner moved to live with a third wife, Naomi Kibor, in Kabenes, Uasin Gishu County, but has been making frequent visits to our home,” she said.

Jepkoech says that in April 2014, she realized that her husband wanted to sell off a parcel of land namely PLATEAU/KIPKABUS BLOCK 4 (LELMOKWO)/1, which she says is her matrimonial home and she therefore placed a caveat blocking the sale of the land.

She says that blocking the sale is the reason her husband wanted their marriage annulled. The case is still pending judgment at Eldoret law courts.