Kenya orders arrest of track star Tirop’s husband for her murder

NAIROBI: Kenya on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for top athlete Agnes Tirop´s husband who is suspected of murdering her, after he failed to appear in court for a second time.

Tirop, hailed as one of Kenya´s most promising new track stars, was stabbed to death aged 25 in October 2021 in an incident that shocked the athletics world. Her husband Ibrahim Rotich, 45, was due to appear in Eldoret court in western Kenya but prosecuting lawyer Leonard Okaka said he was “nowhere to be traced”.

Rotich also failed to appear in court last month. Tirop was a double world 10,000m bronze medallist and 2015 world cross country champion who also finished fourth in the 5,000m at the Tokyo Olympics.

She also smashed the world women-only record in the 10km road race in Germany in the month before her killing. Rotich denied killing Tirop, whose body was found at her home in the athletics training hub of Iten in western Kenya.

Eldoret high court judge Robert Wananda issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday, asking police to bring Rotich to court on April 8. Rotich was released on bail in November 2023 after being held in custody for two years.

Under the bail conditions, he was barred from leaving his home county of Uasin Gishu, of which Eldoret is the main town. Prosecuting lawyer Okaka called for him to have forfeited his 400,000 shillings ($3,000) cash bond.

Another lawyer also urged police to explain if Rotich had failed to appear at his weekly check-in at the local police station. Kenya has witnessed a number of deaths and killings of prominent female athletes in recent years. Ugandan long-distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei was murdered by her boyfriend last year -- the third female athlete to be killed in Kenya since 2021.