BY WINSTONE MUSISI
The prime suspect in the gruesome murder of international runner Agnes Tirop, brahim Rotich will be arraigned at the High Court in Eldoret to take plea in connection with her killing on November 16.
The ruling was given by Eldoret Hgh Court acting Deputy Registrar Diana Milimu who directed that Rotich, 41, undergo a mental assessment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret on Monday next week, before taking plea.
“Direction is hereby given that the accused person be escorted to the MTRH on Monday, November 15, for a psychiatric examination to ascertain whether he is fit to take plea for murder on TUESDAY, November 16,”directed Milimu.
She further directed that Rotich be detained at Eldoret Railways Police Station pending his arraignment in Court after undergoing mental assessment tests at MTRH.
Rotich arraigned
Earlier on Tuesday morning, Rotich had been arraigned at the Iten law court where the miscellaneous file in which the officers from the directorate of criminal investigations had asked for 20 days to complete investigations into the murder incident linked to the suspect was closed.
The state prosecutor Judith Ayuma, who had earlier sought an order for the suspect to be detained for 20 days to allow the investigating team conduct further investigations told the court that the prosecution had overwhelming evidence connecting Rotich to his lover’s murder and that the prosecution would move forward to charge Rotich with murder.
Rotich’s advocate Ngige Mbugua told the court that they were ready to proceed with the plea taking once his client undergoes the mental assessment.
The suspect has been in police station
He asked the court to consider that his client had been in the police station since his arrest on October 15.
Rotich was arrested at a police roadblock at Chaani in Changamwe, about six kilometres from Mombasa.
Police became suspicious after they flagged down the suspect’s car for a ‘normal inspection’ but he refused to stop.
Tirop, 25, was an elite runner who had participated in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, featuring in the 5,000-metre race in which she finished fourth.
The athlete was found dead in her house in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County on October 13,
The postmortem examination done by two pathologists at the Iten County Referral Hospital (ICRH) mortuary revealed that Tirop had suffered a neck stab and was hit on the head with a blunt object.
She was buried at her parent’s home in Nandi County on October 23, on a day when she would have turned 26.