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| Police officer Stanley Kibet Kogo who has moved to High Court seeking part of Sh 700m estate of his grandfather |
A 55-year-old Police Constable in Eldoret has moved to the High Court seeking a stake in the estate of his grandfather valued at more than Sh700 million.
The officer Stanley Kibet Kogo who is attached to Yamumbi police station in Eldoret town wants a share of the estate that includes more than 400 acres of land, shares in major companies and money in banks.
Constable Kogo has sued his uncles, Emmanuel Kiptoo Lamai and Benjamin Kiptoo Lamai for discriminating him in the distribution of the estate of Alfred Kaplamai Bor (deceased).
Benjamin and Emmanuel are joint administrators of their late father’s estate and Kogo is a son to one of the daughters of the deceased.
Kogo however claims to have been adopted as a son to the deceased.
The administrators are represented in the succession matter by Lawyers Nathan Tororei and Careen Chesoo while Kogo is represented by lawyer Richard Kamau.
Judge Reuben Nyakundi has been handling the case and will issue a key ruling on September 17 to determine the fate of Kogo in the estate.
Kogo who is the father of two, claims that his grandfather adopted him as one of his children when he was barely three days old.
“From then, he took care of me as his son and paid for everything including my education,” says Kogo.
Kogo says he was adopted after his mother; Irene Zippy Kalamai Bor abandoned him and left to pursue her studies in nursing at the Kisii Medical Training College never to return.
The land in dispute is located along the Eldoret-Southern bypass road and several plots in Eldoret town.
The deceased also held several shares in Standard Chartered Bank, Kenya Breweries, Kenya Commercial Bank, Singoi Holding Limited, Wareng Sacco, motor vehicles, tractors livestock, wheat planters and two trails.
The late Bor left behind three widows and 14 children among them a High Court judge.
Kogo wants the High Court to compel his uncles to include him as a beneficiary in the vast estate of the deceased who passed away on October 20, 2017.
He argues that he was brought up by his late grandparents, Alfred Kaplamai Bor and Rosebella Jepkosgei Bor adding that when he was baptized on December 24, 1971, at St Joseph Seminary Eldoret, they witnessed the ceremony as his parents.
“They were present as my parents and treated me as such,” he says.
Kogo says that his woes started three months after the burial of his grandfather on October 20, 2017, when his uncles held a meeting where they distributed his estate to themselves excluding him from the process.
“I later came to learn that another meeting was held where my uncles appointed themselves as administrators of the entire family estate and sidelined me,” he said.
Constable Kogo argues that by virtue of being adopted, he is fully entitled to a share of the estate.
Kogo also accuses his uncles of denying him a share of Sh57 million that was paid to the deceased family by the National Land Commission as compensation for a section of the family land which was taken to pave the way for the construction of the Eldoret-Southern bypass road project three years ago.
In their rejoinder, the administrators of the deceased estate confessed that Stanely Kibet Kogo was well known to them as he is a son of their sister Irene Zippy Kalamai Bor.
Led by Benjamin, stated that his father lived with his children and grandchildren and he took care of their school fees and other essential needs.
“I know from my own knowledge that my father had during his lifetime stayed with his children and grandchildren. During all this time, he never expressed that he had adopted any of the grandchildren as his children/child,” says Benjamin.
Benjamin claims that his late father never adopted or treated Kogo as his child.
He claimed that the deceased had also bought 5 acres of land for Kogo in Eldoret.
Kogo according to Benjamin moved to the 5 acres in the year 2003 where he has settled with his wife and children to date.
“It is therefore not true that he was treated as a son of the the deceased,” said Benjamin.
Benjamin however told the court that Kogo was entitled to a share of whatever portion would be given to his mother Irene Zippy Kalamai Bor.
by MATHEWS NDANYI