- Kibor Talai served as the party chairman in Uasin Gishu during the time former Vice President the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa was the party leader.
- The estate left by Mzee Kibor includes more than 2,000 acres of land next to Moi University in Eldoret.
Image: BY MATHEWS NDANYI
The family of a former Ford Kenya official in Rift Valley Kibor Arap Talai is locked in a vicious High Court battle over control of his vast estate valued at more than Sh3.5 billion.
Talai served as the party chairman in Uasin Gishu during the time Former Vice President the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa was the party leader.
The estate left by Mzee Talai includes more than 2,000 acres of land next to Moi University in Eldoret.
Talai was also a colonial era paramount chief and his children are among those who testified in a succession case which is being heard by Justice Reuben Nyakundi.
Several witnesses told the court that the estate purely consisted of matrimonial property that he acquired with his first wife Tapyotin Talai through combined effort between 1947 and 1981.
The case has split the family pitting the children of the first wife Tapyotin (now deceased) against the second one Irene Talai.
Some of the witnesses said Irene who was married to Talai in 1992 should not claim the property which was acquired long before she was married as second wife.
Nancy Talai, Tapyotin’s last born daughter, told the court that her father was a teacher before he became a paramount chief while her mother was a cook at the same college that their father taught.
“My father and mother were very active people and worked hard to jointly acquire the estate without the help of anyone else,” Nancy said.
Another member of the family who testified was Caroline Jepkogei, Tapyotin’s granddaughter who was appointed to represent her late grandmother’s interests in the estate.
Jepkogei adopted the affidavit by her grandmother.
She said there was no way that the estate including vast agricultural land and commercial properties spread across Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet counties, would be claimed by the second wife.
“I lived with my late grandmother for more than 20 years and knew many details about the estate and the family,” she said.
Another witness, Mzee William Tanui, 94, a neighbour of the Talais, who is based in Lelan, Elgeyo Marakwet county, told the court how the Tapyotin supported her husband through farming activities.
He said the Tapyotin was a hardworking farmer who reared cattle, practiced poultry farming and planted potatoes and pyrethrum for sale.
At the centre of the battle for the Talai estate is a purported will that was tabled in court by the second wife, Irene, claiming to be bearing the true wishes of the late chief in regards to distribution of his estate among his family.
The contested will, which was subjected to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations forensic analysis, has since been flagged as forgery by the DCI experts.
In 2022, Chief Inspector Daniel Gutu who is a forensic document examiner, while testifying in court revealed that the signatures appearing in the questioned will appeared forged.
The expert report on the will was tabled as an exhibit in court.
Nancy, while testifying on Monday claimed that at the time of drawing of the purported will, some properties mentioned did not exist while other properties were omitted.
She also claimed that Talai's widow has received more than Sh200 million proceeds from the estate in terms of rent which should be directed back to the estate.
“We want the widow to pay these monies back to the estate failure to which her portion from the estate will be deducted and given to the first house,” she said.
However according to Irene, the will she tabled in court reflected her husband’s true wishes.
“The deceased gifted me the land near Moi University on which stands several commercial business premises before he died. There is no way I will share it with his first wife,” she had told the court.
Talai died in 2012, aged 95.
The hearing of the case will continue on May 21 and June 10.