Agnes Jebet Tirop who was found dead at her home in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
When Agnes Tirop was 11, she was already as fast as athletes twice her age.
At 15, she had won the Discovery Cross Country and Ndalat Cross Country races catching the eyes of sponsors who marveled at her raw sheer talent.
In some of those races, she ran barefoot. Her family of ten siblings-seven girls and three boys- lived in two mud-grassed thatched houses.
Barely into her 16th birthday, she had bought land, built a decent modern house in Mosoriot, Nandi county, and relocated her parents and family.
The late Agnes Tirop.
In 2017 she won her first medal at the World Athletics Championships 10,000m race in London.
Since then she hardly placed outside the medal bracket only finishing fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 in the 5,000m race.
Agnes’ life appeared to be moving at a faster pace than her legs' speed.
On 12 September 2021, she set a new world record at the Road to Records race.
Five weeks later, just eleven days before her 26th birthday, Agnes was found murdered at her home in Iten with her husband Ibrahim Rotich currently standing trial as the main suspect.
“Agnes was stabbed, three wounds on the neck. On the head, she had a big scar. The murderer used a kitchen knife which we found at the scene.” Directorate of Criminal Investigation Police Inspector Andolo Munga narrates, in a new Crime documentary release series streaming on Showmax.
The documentary titled Dark Side of Glory: Death in the Heartlands produced by CMG Productions and directed by Arianna Perretta, investigates the murder of three Kenyan female athletes in 2021; Agnes, Edith Muthoni, and Damaris Muthee.
A day before Agnes was found butchered in her house, Muthoni an up-and-coming runner was murdered in cold blood following a domestic quarrel. Her husband was charged with murder as prime suspect.
Six months later Damaris, a Kenyan-Bahrain athlete was found strangled with her decomposing body lying on the bed with a pillow on her face. Damaris's alleged Ethiopian fugitive boyfriend was named the main suspect.
Lilian Kasait (front) wins the women's 5,000 metres ahead of Hellen Obiri and Agnes Tirop during the Kenyan trials for the Tokyo Olympics Games at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on June 17, 2021.
From the outside, Agnes’ life looked like a sporting fairytale as she went from strength to strength.
But those who spoke to Perretta, from police, Agnes’ family, friends, coach, and neighbours, paint a picture of a lady who busked in glory on the tracks and fields but quietly led a tumultuous life behind the scenes, drowned in a toxic marriage relationship that would eventually lead to loss of her life.
Meets Rotich, drops out of school, gets married
The late Agnes met her then-to-be husband Rotich in 2010 while still a High school student. She was 14, then, and Rotich, 29.
Although Tirop had a coach then, Rotich, described as sociable and charming offered to manage and coach her leading to Agnes falling out with her first coach Nahashon Kibon. Just like Kibon, Agnes' parents were too not for the idea deeming Rotich as one with little formal coaching experience.
But Agnes was adamant and not long the two began an affair.
“When I first met him (Rotich) I thought he was Agnes’s coach because of the obvious huge age difference. She would later inform me that he was her boyfriend,” Eve Tirop, the late’s younger sister states.
The union didn’t appease their parents too as Agnes soon dropped out of school. When the matter was reported to the police, Agnes and Rotich eloped eventually moving to Iten where they lived together in the house where her lifeless body was found on that fateful day. In Iten, Agnes joined a training camp as she lived with Rotich.
Ibrahim Rotich, a suspect in the murder of his 'wife' Agnes Tirop, an international athlete, in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County in October 2021, appears in Eldoret High Court on November 2, 2022.
Lonely and troubled marriage
Things took a drastic turn in 2016 when Rotich and Agnes married in secrecy, according to court documents. Her family was not invited.
Agnes relationship with her family became even more strenuous and estranged. She no longer supported the family as was the case before.
“She wasn’t on good speaking terms with our parents and sometimes when she came home she could never spend a night, she always went back,” Eve accounts.
Friends too were out of bounds. They claim Rotich's controlling and micro-managing behaviour manipulated, and discouraged Agnes from associating with not only her family but them too.
“I used to know Agnes Tirop as my neighbour. Agnes never lived a happy life, she lived a slave life. I never saw anybody visiting the place (her house) even the brothers and sisters. After training there was a padlock on the door. They never had any friends. They would go to the market, come back, and lock themselves in with a padlock on the door. Nobody could come there, it was like hell,” a friend, who requested to be anonymous but whom we will call Mary, recounts.
In a separate interview, Martha Akello, another athlete who lived next door to the couple, told The New Yorker that the couple when together shared a phone.
“We were neighbours, but he did not permit her to mingle with other ladies. He had to accompany her to training. It’s like she was living in prison,” Akello is quoted.
Mary** shares the same observations.
“I told Agnes if this guy cannot let you have a relationship with me and we live nearby then I think you are in the wrong relationship because we could be making dinner and sharing as neighbors, having fun, training together, or things like that. Then Agnes told me, I think you are right because this guy we are using the same phone. I cannot have any secrets even talking to my family I can't find time to because we are sharing the same phone,”
According to Martin Tirop, Agnes' elder brother and pacesetter, the shared phone was connected to the CCTV installed in their house to specifically monitor her sister.
“I realized the CCTV was connected to the phone at one time when Agnes went to visit home. She didn’t carry her training gear so she gave me the keys to the house and sent me to go fetch them from their house. She advised that I should wait for him to leave (Rotich) the house then I could go in and fetch her the shoes. I went in and a few minutes later the guy was back. Luckily enough I had already left,” Martin narrates.
Fellow elite athlete, Viola Lagat Cherop who met Agnes in 2014 and became buddies describes the late as reserved.
“She was very quiet, very reserved, very private. She did not like to talk about her personal life. Whenever you meet her she would just talk about races,” Cherop a marathon runner notes.
Even as their friendship blossomed throughout the years, Viola never got a chance to meet Rotich.
“When I came back to Kenya in 2016 after the Olympics I ended up training with Agnes and other girls who were also running the 5,000m. And that’s how much we grew closer because we ran together every single day. Weirdly, I never met her partner. He always came to her training and would be inside a car. He would always drive, have the windows rolled up and when he only had the windows down, is whenever he had something to say to her,” Viola recalls.
Agnes Tirop
Agnes goes back to her parents
In 2020 Agnes decided to leave her marriage and returned home to her parents.
“Agnes had had enough and decided to go back home when she came across receipts of liquor worth Sh20,000, Sh30,000, and so on. She bemoaned that she was struggling to win races and make money only for it to be misused,” Martin recounts.
After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Martin reconnected with her sister.
“When we met, I noticed something unusual. She was driving herself and wasn’t in the company of the guy who never left her side. She told me she was fed up with her relationship and had decided to go back home. Agnes also had a bruise on her face and when enquired about it, she said Ibrahim had assaulted her,” Martin goes on.
One day, Martin says her sister received a message from Ibrahim, threatening to burn their home in Iten if she didn’t go back.
Back home in Mosoriot and with two important races around the corner, Agnes found it difficult to properly for the races, so she called her manager for assistance.
“I received a call from her manager saying Agnes is facing a lot of problems. So I had to secure Agnes and put her in the camp (in Iten) and separate her from her boyfriend because I knew two important races were coming up shortly. At the camp Agnes was relaxed, there was no disturbance,” notes Joseph Cheremoi, Agnes' former coach.
Cold blood murder
One of those races was Road to Record held in September 2021 in Germany where she traveled and set a world record-breaking the previous one that had lasted 19 years. The other race was the Tokyo Olympics 2020 which were hosted in July/August 2021.
“When Agnes broke the world record in 2021 I was just there. We traveled together to Nairobi, then Eldoret the following morning and then we said our goodbyes. I told her I will see her when I go to Iten,” Viola recites her last days with the champion.
Agnes spent a couple of days in Mosoriot with her family and later decided to go back to the camp in Iten.
“While in Iten, Ibrahim sent his friends to the camp to secure a truce and request her to return to their home, promising a change of behavior,” Mary says.
Agnes obliged.
“I was worried and skeptical about her going back. She too was. So we discussed it with Agnes and agreed we should go together. We got to her house at about 7:30 pm. A social Ibrahim opened the gate for us,” Eve recalls.
The two sisters had planned to go for a run the following mourning but there was a heavy downpour.
“We couldn’t go for the morning run. When the rains seized, I decided to go to Kapsowar to fetch my school results. I then received a call from Ibrahim saying I shouldn’t go back to the house as he and Agnes had travelled to Nairobi for three days,” Eve gives further account.
Unable to reach her sister on the phone, as her lines were off, Eve became restless and called his brother Martin.
“I rushed to the house, it was locked. At 7 pm we reported the matter to the police. Police tracked my Agnes lines, one was located on Moi’s Bridge, and the other line was located in the house in Iten and the last line was located in Cheptebo. When Ibrahim’s line was tracked it was in Cheptebo too” Martin says.
They were advised by the police to go home and follow up on the matter the next morning.
“The following day we broke into the gate to get into the compound. The door was locked from the inside, we peeped through the windows the rooms were disturbed then I gave the orders for the breakage of the door.” Police Inspector Munga states.
Agnes bedroom was also locked and when they gained access her lifeless body lay on the bed with stubbed wounds.
Rotich was arrested five days later in Mombasa and was charged with murder in November 2021 which he denies. He was released on bail on November 2023 after two years in custody.
