The Eldoret High Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Ibrahim Rotich, the main suspect in the 2021 brutal murder of former World Cross-Country Champion Agnes Tirop.
Justice Robert Wananda issued the warrant after Rotich, Tirop’s estranged husband, failed to appear before court for the second time in as many months.
Rotich first failed to appear in court on February 26, with his lawyer Ngigi Mbugua, stating his client had turned off both his mobile phones and relocated from his known residence, making him untraceable.
He was granted bail on November 15, 2023, after being held in custody since October 15, 2021, in connection with the murder of Tirop whose lifeless body was found with stab wounds at her home in Iten two days earlier.
Rotich was released on a bond of Ksh.400,000, with a surety of a similar amount, or cash bail of Ksh.500,000, after the Eldoret High Court determined that there were no compelling reasons to continue to detain him.
The suspect also failed to appear in court on Tuesday, prompting Wananda to issue the arrest warrant.
Justice Wananda also summoned the Officer Commanding Eldoret Police Station (OCS) to appear in court on April 8, 2025, during the case’s next mention, to shed light on Rotich’s whereabouts.
One of Rotich’s bail conditions was that he avail himself at the Eldoret Central Police Station every Monday, with a record of his attendance kept in file.
“We pray that you issue summons to the OCS attached to Eldoret Central Police Station to come to court and explain whether the suspect has been reporting to the station every Monday as per the court ruling of April 15, 2023,” Richard Warigi, the lawyer representing Tirop’s family, urged the court.
A post-mortem examination of Tirop’s body revealed that she died as a result of multiple stab wounds on the neck and blunt head trauma.
According to Government Pathologist Dr. Dorothy Njeru who conducted the exercise with forensic physicians, the late Tirop lost a lot of blood due to the stab wounds allegedly inflicted by her partner Ibrahim Rotich.
