He was born a junior son of the Bakwena kgosi Tebele.
Following a drought, Mogopa wished to move the tribe to find rain, but Kgabo and his village did not accompany them.
[1] The Bakwena split into two separate groups: the Bakwena-Kgabo staying in Rathatheng, and the Bakwena-Mogopa that settled in Mabjanamatshwana.
[2][1][3] Kgabo may have been the kgosi who lead the Bakwena from Rathatheng into present-day Botswana, but this could also have been his son and successor Motshodi.
[1] According to history professor Leonard Ngcongco, Kgabo and Motshodi lived in the seventeenth century.