I won't divorce Kibor, wife tells court

Josephine Jepkoech the wife of prominent farmer and politician in Uasin Gishu Jackson Kibor before the Eldoret Chief Magistrate's Court where she testified in a divorce case filed by her husband of 52 years. She swore not to break vows to keep their marriage intact until death, saying her husband has no valid reason to divorce her because they have never disagreed all through their marriage. PHOTO BY MICHAEL OLLINGA 27.07.2017

The wife of prominent farmer and politician Jackson Kibor has vowed she will not divorce her husband of 52 years and that only death will separate them.

Josephine Jepkoech, 69, who was being cross-examined by her lawyer Amos Magut and Mr Kibor's lawyers Mark Waziri and Richard Wainaina, said her husband's petition for divorce did not hold any water.

Kibor, 83, went to court in 2014 and filed the matter against Jepkoech citing cruelty, desertion and denial of conjugal rights, accusations Jepkoech denies, saying their marriage is blissful.

According to their marriage certificate, the two tied the knot on February 27, 1965.

Jepkoech pointed to letters Kibor wrote to her in 1992 and 1988, together with photos they took during Christmas celebrations at her Kipkabus farm in 2014. She said she had no authority to deny her husband access to their marital home or to stay with his other wives.

Family elders

"My husband, with whom I have neither quarrelled nor called the community and family elders to arbitrate any disputes, married the third wife in 1975, some 10 years after we got married, and got the fourth in 2002. We went to the 'koito' (pre-wedding ceremony) with the three other wives to ask for the fourth wife's hand together with our husband and even visited her when she had her first child and we celebrated together," she said.

She dismissed claims by Mr Waziri that her screaming in court last year was a show of disrespect to Kibor and said she was unwell at the time yet the counsel wanted her to proceed with the court matter.

She said she had not denied her husband access to their house and that he was there in March this year and they even had a meal together. [Michael Ollinga]