Fugitive husband of Kenyan Olympic sprinter who was found stabbed to death in her home on Oct. 13, has been arrested, after two days on the run

Police traced Ibrahim Rotich Kemboi‘s location by tracking his mobile phone

He was arrested late Thursday in Mombasa, 500 miles from the home he shared with Tirop, after police tracked his cellphone

Ritoch Kemboi was cornered by cops in Mombasa, after he inserted an old SIM card into a new phone which they were able to track, police said

Agnes Tirop, 25, found stabbed to death at house in Iten, Kenya, on Wednesday after her father asked for a wellness check

Police subsequently named husband Rotich Kemboi as the prime suspect, but he’d fled before cops arrived

He is due in court Friday where police will request that he be remanded in custody, creating time to build the case

The husband of a Kenyan Olympic sprinter found stabbed to death in her home is due in court today after he was arrested over the killing.
Ibrahim Rotich Kemboi has not yet been charged with killing 25-year-old wife Agnes Tirop, who was found dead at home on Wednesday, and police are expected to ask the court to detain him while they ‘firm up the case against him’.
It comes after Kemboi, who had previously been named as the prime suspect in the case, was detained late Thursday night in Mombasa, more than 500 miles from the home he shared with Tirop.
Police cornered the suspect using mobile phone data, tracking an old SIM card he had inserted into his new phone after spending days offline. 

Ibrahim Rotich Kemboi had been missing since his wife was found dead in their home on Wednesday.
Crime scene investigators had gone to the house after her father called for a wellness check. He told police his daughter had been missing since Tuesday night. The record-breaking Kenyan distance runner was found dead Wednesday with stab wounds to her stomach in a suspected homicide, athletics officials said
Responding officers found the 25-year-old athlete on the bed and blood on the floor, according to Tom Makori, Keiyo North Sub County Police Commаnder.
Tirop had been stabbed in the abdomen, the apparent cause of her death.
Police immediately launched a manhunt for her husband Ibrahim Rotich Kemboi, who had already fled.
Investigators are hoping CCTV footage from the home will help to explain events in the home.

Tirop was one of Kenya’s most-promising athletes before being found dead from stab wounds to her abdomen in the bedroom of her home on Wednesday.  The world class athlete who was just 10 days away from her 26th birthday, recently set the world record for the road 10K.
In the Tokyo Olympics this summer, Tirop advanced to the final of the women’s 5,000m where she finished in fourth place.
Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan won the gold medal, with Hellen Obiri from Kenya coming in second place and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay crossing the line in third place in a time of 14:38.87 – less than a second off Tirop. 
The star athlete also won bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships in the 10,000m, and won gold the 2015 World Cross Country Championships when she was just 19-years-old.
Just a month ago, she smashed the women’s 10,000 meters world record at an event in Germany. 
Athletics Kenya said it was postponing events for two weeks in honor of Tirop and another runner who was found dead at the weekend of an apparent suicide. Athletics Kenya president Jackson Tuwei said Tirop’s death was a ‘huge blow’ to athletics, describing her as ‘one of the fastest rising stars’. 
Her family told reporters she was their breadwinner, paying for children’s school fees and clothes.
President Uhuru Kenyatta paid tribute to Tirop, who would have turned 26 later this month, saying she had ‘brought our country so much glory through her exploits on the global athletics stage’. 

Her tragic death was confirmed by Barnaba Korir, the chairperson of Athletics Kenya in Nairobi Region. 
In a heartfelt statement on social media, he wrote: ‘Athletics Kenya are this afternoon distraught to learn about the untimely death of World 10,000m bronze medalist Agnes Tirop.
‘Tirop was found dead at their home in Iten after she was allegedly stabbed by her husband. We are still working to unearth more details surrounding her demise.
‘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.
‘Just last month, she broke the women-only record in the women’s 10km at Road to Records Race in Germany, timing 30:01.
‘Last week, she finished an impressive second, timing 30:20 at the Valencia Half Marathon.
‘Tirop’s decorated CV also includes a World Cross Country title in 2015 during which she made history as the second youngest medalist at that level.
‘She also won the Africa Cross Country Championship in 2014 in Kampala, Uganda as well as the World Junior Cross Country Championship in 2013 in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
‘We pray that God may grant strength to family and friends at this difficult time.’   

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also paid tribute to the young athlete, who would have turned 26 later this month, and urged the police to track down those behind her death.
‘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,’ he 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,’ President Kenyatta said.