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Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, Agnes Tirop’s husband and her suspected killer, has been detained and is being held for an appearance in court. Apparently, the apprehension was after a dramatic late-night arrest.
He was captured in Mombasa along with an unnamed friend, who is also being held.
Tirop, age 25 was a Kenyan double world championship medallist. She was stabbed to death. The murder has shocked her hometown, Kenya, and the world of athletics.
The prime suspect in the gruesome murder of 25-year-old world 5,000m record holder Agnes Tirop, has been arrested. Ibrahim Rotich, who was in a relationship with the athlete was arrested moments ago in Changamwe, Mombasa county, as he tried to flee to a neighboring pic.twitter.com/G2OrhlaM8X
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) October 14, 2021
Police tracked Rotich using his mobile number after he apparently used an old SIM card in a new phone. He was offline prior to turning the phone on.
Tributes have poured in for Tirop since her body was found with stab wounds in the bedroom of their home in Iten, a high-altitude training hub in western Kenya for many top-class athletes.
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.
Tirop competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and broke the world 10K road record at 30:01 this summer.
Following the race, she said, “I’m so happy to have broken the world record. I felt the pace was good. The course was very good, too.”
She won the 2015 World Cross Country Championships.
Read: Another alleged domestic squabble results in death of Kenyan athlete>>
