Ibrahim Kipkemoi Rotich, the husband of dead Kenyan long-distance runner Agnes Tirop, was detained in Mombasa on Thursday night.
Rotich, the key suspect in the murder of the 25-year-old two-time World Championships medalist, was caught by Changamwe police following a two-day manhunt.
Tirop was found dead with stab wounds in her bedroom at their house in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, on Wednesday.
Police quickly designated Rotich as a primary suspect in the Olympian’s death, which has reignited calls for the country’s capital sentence to be reinstated.
Report reveals that Rotich was arrested in one of the police stations within Changamwe Police Division where he had gone to visit a relative. The said relative tipped his bosses who set a trap for the man who has been on the run since his wife was found dead early Wednesday.
Coast Regional Commissioner John Elungata confirmed that Rotich was in custody awaiting to be transferred to Nairobi early Friday morning where he will be taken to court.
Tirop was killed just a month after she broke the women-only 10km world record at an Adidas event in Germany, with a time of 30:01, dipping 28 seconds inside the previous record.
“Kenya has lost a jewel who was one of the fastest rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track,” Athletics Kenya said in a statement Wednesday.
AK boss Jackson Tuwei had earlier on Thursday cancelled the cross country events scheduled for the next two weeks to allow the country to mourn the athlete who had been described by President Uhuru Kenyatta as a hero.
“It is unsettling, utterly unfortunate and very sad that we’ve lost a young and promising athlete who, at a young age of 25 years, she had brought our country so much glory through her exploits on the global athletics stage,” Mr Kenyatta, who is in the United States of America in an official tour, said in a statement.
“It is even more painful that Agnes, a Kenyan hero by all measures, painfully lost her young life through a criminal act perpetuated by selfish and cowardly people,” said Kenyatta before asking the police to track down those behind her death.