A Kenyan court has sentenced two men to 35 years each for the murder of Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat late last year.
The Olympic steeplechaser was fatally stabbed on New Year’s Eve in Eldoret, a town renowned as a premier training hub for athletes.
“Your actions were cruel to a defenceless person whose life you cut short,” Justice Reuben Nyakundi told Peter Ushuru Khalumi and David Ekai Lokere during the sentencing hearing in the High Court in Eldoret.
Kiplagat’s murder sent shockwaves through Kenya, a country already grappling with the recent killings of several elite athletes.
The judge stated that Khalumi and Lokere had followed Kiplagat, who was in his car, before CCTV footage captured their deliberate and premeditated attack. While the exact motive remains unclear, police had initially suggested it was a robbery.
On Monday, in a heartfelt plea to the court, the athlete’s mother urged Justice Nyakundi to impose life sentences. She recounted how her son, who began his career running barefoot, had worked tirelessly to become an international athlete and the family’s primary provider, according to The Nation newspaper.
“My son had 8,000 [Kenyan] shillings ($62; £48) and an expensive mobile phone, but the killers did not take any of the property from him. Their mission was to painfully finish him,” the newspaper quotes her as saying.
Although the court did not grant the family’s request for life sentences, they expressed satisfaction with the outcome, feeling that justice had been served.
Kiplagat, who was 34 at the time of his death, had reached the final of the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also competed in the next two Olympic Games and holds the Ugandan national record in the event.
