Information on Kitingan Family

The Kitingon (or Kitingan) clan is the name of the family descended from Datuk Francis Xavier Kitingon Sabanau. In Malaysia surnames were not normally adopted by the Kadazan Dusun but the custom is catching on. Kitingon Sabanau was born in the early 1900 (possibly late 1898)and produced 17 children, 3 from his first wife who died after the third child and 15 from his second wife, among whom, two in particular, would draw world attention to the quiet but beautiful town of Tambunan. The Kitingan clan is also related to two big and well-known families in Tambunan, namely the Ongkili and Imbayan Clans. 

The siblings

 The three siblings from the marriage to Sodiom are  Abbie, Sainam and Lotuin. The 15 children from the marriage to Laimah Imbayan are Pairin, Paimil, Pilim, Lini, Gapari, Duin, Wina, Leijus, Joparin, Crispin, Joanna, Jovinia, Juliana, Francis and Victor. Jovinia died of cancer when she was 14.

Famous brothers

The two brothers who became well known are Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan  and Datuk Dr. Jeffrey (Gapari) Kitingan. Pairin is the eldest from the second mother and Jeffrey is the fifth son. Pairin and Jeffrey in their own ways each made early achievements by being the first Kadazan lawyer and the first Sabahan Harvard graduate, respectively. See their individual profiles respectively for details.

The Other brothers 

The two famous brothers are of course giants overshadowing the other brothers.  However, the other brothers are interesting people in their own right and making their own progress in whatever they are doing, albeit quietly. The eldest half brother, Charles Abbie Kitingan is a retired sergeant major who lives in Keningau. He has 7  children.  He is now a grandfather and living contently with his wife. 

 After Pairin is Petrus Paimil Kitingan, who also had a quiet but interesting life as an agricultural assistant in the Department of Agriculture in Tenom and Tambunan until he retired a few years ago. He has seven children the eldest of whom died recently from a tragic car accident.  His eldest daughter married in 1998 and now has two children. One notable achievement of Paimil’s is his determination to further his academic qualification in his adult years, completing his Form V as a private student. He developed his fruit orchard of durian, rambutan and star fruit just before he retired and is now reaping the fruits of his labour with a steady annual income. His durians are well sought after during the fruit season.

 The third brother is Philip Pilim Kitingan, also a retired public servant.  He was also quite a high profile civil servant working as a community development officer in the CD Centre, traveling around Sabah to disburse government information and policies.  He also pursued further  studies in his adult years, obtaining a Diploma from the Philippines. He has 6 adult children all of whom are married except for a daughter and the only son. He is now doing freelance insurance and direct selling. He was recently appointed as one of the councillors in the Tambunan district council (Jan 2002).

 The next brother is David Lini Kitingan, a retired sergeant, who is now based in Tambunan as a supervisor in the Tapai Factory in TVRC.  He has 6 children none of whom has married yet.  One of his daughters has  (May 2001) qualified as a doctor and is currently working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, KK. He has another son studying to become a dentist. David was posted in the frontline Sabatic Island during the Indonesian confrontation, but survived. 

After David is Dr. Jeffrey. The next brother is Laurentius (Leijus) Kitingan , who is hosting this website.  He studied in Brisbane, Australia on a Colombo Plan Scholarship, obtaining his B. Agr. Sc. degree from Queensland University in 1979 and then his M. Env. Sc. degree from Monash University in 1982 on  a Federal Scholarship. He returned to Sabah in 1982 and worked for the Department of Agriculture for 6 months before he joined KPD under Desa Cattle (S) Sdn Bhd in 1983. He worked under KPD Holdings Sdn. Bhd. managing the livestock operations until 1989 when he left to start his own business. He was in the printing line for about 10 years and was also involved in training programmes and running petrol stations. He got involved with a huge project with Dr. Jeffrey to establish the first PCB project in Sabah at KKIP in 1997-1999 but unfortunately had to abandon the project because of the currency crisis. In 2000 and 2001, he was involved in a timber operation in Tambunan extracting timber from land before development.  His experiences in this line will be posted soon.

 Laurentius is married to Dr. Jacqueline and has seven children, the oldest of whom has  turned 21 and studying science/law in Australia. He has completed his science degree but has two more years to get his law degree. The second, a daughter has just completed her Year 12 and is planning to study education methods in Brisbane Queensland.

The next brother is Joparin Kitingan (Justinus). He used to hit the headlines with his boxing both in and outside the ring.  He was the Malaysian Champion in the welter weight category in the late 70’s early 80’s.  He left for US in 1989 to study Sports Admin. He is now coaching young Sabahans, including two of his sons in boxing. He is married to Suzy with 5 children.

 The next brother is Crispin Kitingan. He got married before he went to Bogor Indonesia to further his studies and came back after he got his diploma in forestry to work in Safoda.  He  left for Great Britain in 19  to get his degree and came back to Sabah to return to Safoda, where he has been ever since. He is now the head of the Safoda Research Division in Kinarut.  He has 2 children with his first wife Stella from  whom he got divorced in 1997. He remarried in 1998 to Lalita.

 After Crispin, the next brother is Francis Sales Kitingan.  He was working with SFI then left after he got married to Quirine in 19  .  He was looking after the Shell Station in Tambunan for a few years before he left for further studies in Aberdeen Scotland in 1994. They have two young children.  Francis is now working on his own in KK. 

The youngest brother and sibling is Victor Nelson Kitingan. Being the youngest of course, he was always pampered by his older siblings and doted on by his parents. But he also had his elder brothers to look up to and emulate which was not an easy task, but he has done pretty well.  He worked in Labuan in a bank for a while before he left for Scotland to pursue further studies in Tourism.  He returned in 1996 to take up the position of General Manager of TVRC, until now.  He married Sylvinia in 1999 and they have one very lovable daughter, Kitana Kelly.

The Sisters

 The two older sisters from the first of Kitingan Sabanau’s wife were Sainam and Lotuin. Sainam is married to Alliun Ganggal, a retired teacher.  They have 11 children, one of whom is a lawyer, Peter.  One of their daughters (Jane) lives in Canada with her husband who is a Canadian. 

The next sister is Lotuin who was married to Ebbie who passed away recently.  They had a daughter who died of cancer in 1990.

There were five daughters from Laimah, Kitingon Sabanau’s second wife, but the fourth one, Jovinia died of throat cancer in 1976. The eldest of these was Dionysia Duin Kitingan, who is married to James Wong, who recently retired from a long and dedicated service as accountant in the public sector.  They have four children, the eldest of whom (Donna) is an engineer and works in Singapore. Duin works as a staff nurse in the hospital.

 The next sister is Wina, who is married to Julani Obou, a police corporal. Wina works as a nurse at the clinic at Kapayan Police Headquarters.  They have 9 children one of whom is married.

 The next sister is Joanna Kitingan, who is the most prominent of the sisters, being the most educated.  She was working at the Library for a number of years before she went to England to further her studies and obtain her masters degree in librarianship. She came back to work at the library but later got a promotion to head the State Archives. With the change in government, she was moved around a bit at first but is now settled in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. She is married to Jude Kissey a businessman and they have 5 children.

 The youngest sister is Juliana Kitingan, who is married to  Justin Alip, a businessman and politician.  Juliana is doing her own business and also pursuing further studies privately.  They have 5 children, the eldest of whom (Jane) got engaged to Rocky in December 2001.

(For more details on each member, refer to individual member's page)