A court docket in Kenyan has sentenced two males to 35 years every for the homicide of Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat on the finish of final 12 months.
The Olympic steeplechaser was stabbed to loss of life on New 12 months’s Eve within the city of Eldoret, often called a high coaching centre for athletes.
“Your actions had been merciless to a defenceless individual whose life you narrow brief,” Justice Reuben Nyakundi advised Peter Ushuru Khalumi and David Ekai Lokere throughout the sentencing listening to within the Excessive Courtroom in Eldoret.
Kiplagat’s homicide shocked folks in Kenya, which has seen the killing of various different elite athletes lately.
The decide stated that Khalumi and Lokere had adopted Kiplagat, who was in his automotive, after which CCTV footage confirmed that they’d deliberately killed him in a premeditated act.
On Monday, in an emotional request to the court docket, the athlete’s mom had requested Justice Nyakundi at hand down life sentences.
She talked about how her son, who began his profession operating barefoot, had labored laborious to turn out to be a world runner and the household’s breadwinner, the Nation newspaper stories.
“My son had 8,000 [Kenyan] shillings ($62; £48) and an costly cell phone, however the killers didn’t take any of the property from him. Their mission was to painfully end him,” the newspaper quotes her as saying.
Regardless of not acceding to the household’s request for all times sentences, they stated they had been proud of the end result and that justice had been served.
Kiplagat, who was 34 when he died, reached the ultimate of the three,000m steeplechase on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He additionally competed within the following two Video games and is the holder of the Ugandan document on the occasion.
