The hearing of a case in which 82 year old prominent Rift Valley politician-cum-farmer Jackson Kibor is seeking to divorce his wife of 51 years failed to take off for the 8th time yesterday after the lawyer representing his estranged wife asked the presiding magistrate to withdraw from the case.
Amos Magut for Josephine Jepkoech Kibor, alleged that the principal magistrate, Charles Obulutsa, was biased against his client in the manner he was handling the case. He questioned the rational by the magistrate to speed up the hearing of the case whenever the matter was coming up for hearing and yet it was not an emergency case.
The lawyer cited an incident last December when his client declined to testify in court against her husband on the divorce case on the ground that she was not feeling well. When the case came up for hearing, Josephine shocked the packed court when the declined to testify and instead wailed loudly as she shed tears claiming that she was feeling unwell and was unable to proceed with the case.
The court, Magut argued, tried to force her to testify against her wish on the health ground on the material day saying her client feels the magistrate was being biased in favor of her embattled husband on the matter before his court.
“This court has in the past made some statements which appeared in the print media which shows that he is biased against my client and I would not wish the same court to continue hearing the matter,” argued Magut.
But in a quick rejoinder Kibor’s lawyer, Waziri Omollo, castigated Magut for trying to delaying the hearing of the case on flimsy ground in an attempt to defeat justice.
He said his client has been coming to the court without failure only for lawyer of his estranged wife to apply for adjournment in a scheme aimed at delaying the hearing and determination of the case matter before the court.
“Your honor, my client has been suffering injustices by numerous applications for adjournment by respondent’s lawyer when the case comes up for hearing in this court,” said Omollo.
