Property dispute
The children of a former medical doctor in Eldoret are engaged in a vicious court battle over control of their late father’s Sh700 million estate. Siblings from the first and second wives of the late Vincent Kiprotich Komurgor have failed to agree on how to share his estate 20 years after his demise.
The former medic had properties that included hundreds of acres of agricultural land and prime plots spread across Nandi, Uasin Gishu, and Kakamega counties. Siblings from the deceased’s two widows, Anne Kiprotich and Esther Cheboi, both also deceased are now embroiled in a vicious court battle after disagreeing on how to share their late father’s vast estate.
Grace Chepkogei, Ben Kimutai, and David Kibet from the second wife have petitioned the court to prevail upon their siblings, Ignatius Rotich, Louis Rotich, and Mark Rotich from the first wife to recognize them as bonafide children of the late Kimurgor, and that they are entitled to a share of his estate.
Court documents presented before Eldoret High Court Judge Reuben Nyakundi by Grace Chepkosgei on behalf of her two siblings claimed that despite being the biological children of the deceased, their stepbrothers have refused to recognize them and gone ahead to deny them the inheritance of his estate.
When she appeared before Justice Nyakundi yesterday, Chepkosgei complained that they were living in destitution after their stepsiblings evicted them from their father’s property in Langas estate along the Eldoret-Kapsabet highway.
We were forcefully ejected from our late father’s house in Langas estate by our step siblings leaving us to live in destitution because they have also excluded us from benefiting from his estate,” she said.
She accused the step-siblings, Ignatius Rotich, Louis Rotich, and Mark Rotich of treating them as strangers since the death of their father. To back up her claims that they were the deceased’s biological children, Chepkosgei produced in court paternity test results as evidence. The tests, which she claimed showed a 99.9% accuracy were conducted at Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).
“My samples and that of my stepbrother, Ignatius were extracted for DNA tests and the outcome showed that we are of the same father with a 99.9 percent accuracy,” she told the Judge.
Chepkosgei said that it was on these grounds that they were forced to move to the court 13 years ago and obtained a court order that revoked the grant of letters of administration that had been issued to their step-siblings.
She also accused her siblings of denying them despite being raised together by their stepmother, adding that their predicament started after the death of their stepmother 15 years ago.
However, in a rejoinder, the step-siblings led by Ignatious, vehemently deny that the petitioners were their siblings hence not bonafide beneficiaries of their late father’s estate and asked the court to order investigations into their identities. He claimed the applicants might have forged documents they presented before the court in an attempt to conceal their actual identities.
In documents presented before court, Ignatius claims their alleged stepmother was buried in her husband’s (not their father’s) home in Tot area, Elgeyo Marakwet County, saying this was a clear indication that she was not married to their late father.
“It is not right to give access to our late parent’s house to strangers to live in because they are not beneficiaries of our late father’s estate,” said Ignatius.