Husband of slain runner Tirop due in court

MOMBASA (KENYA) • Kenyan police said yesterday they were still deciding where to arraign the husband of record-smashing long-distance runner Agnes Tirop, who was found dead in her home this week.

Police arrested Tirop's husband Ibrahim Rotich on Thursday in the coastal city of Mombasa, saying he was trying to flee the country.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said that he would be arraigned to answer murder charges.

"We are still investigating the matter before a decision to take him to court is made," David Kahinga, a local police official, told journalists in Mombasa.

One option is transporting the suspect back to the city of Eldoret, where Tirop was found dead with stab wounds on Wednesday. She would have turned 26 on Oct 23.

"Some issues are still being looked into, but the law requires us to produce a suspect within 24 hours of arrest, and we shall comply," added Kahinga, who is the officer in charge at the Changamwe police station where the suspect is being held.

Rotich "had fled from Iten where he is suspected to have committed the offence... At the time of the arrest, he was with one of his friends who is also in custody," he added.

He declined further comment, saying police were still interrogating Rotich, who was cornered in Mombasa after police used his mobile number to track him down when he used his old SIM card in his new phone.

Tirop was killed just a month after she smashed the women-only 10km world record in Germany.

She had previously won world championship medals and finished fourth in the 5,000 metres at the Tokyo Olympics this year.

In 2015, she became the second-youngest gold medallist in the women's cross-country championships at the age of just 19.

Tributes have poured in for her since her body was found in the bedroom of her home in Iten, a high-altitude training hub in western Kenya for many top-class athletes.

"Athletics has lost one of its brightest young stars in the most tragic circumstances," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Athletics Kenya said it was postponing events for two weeks in honour of Tirop and another runner, Hosea Mwok Macharinyang, who was found dead at the weekend of an apparent suicide.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE