A court in Kenya has sentenced two men to 35 years in prison each for the murder of Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat late last year.
The Olympic steeplechase athlete was stabbed to death on New Year’s Eve in the town of Eldoret, known as a leading training center for athletes.
“Your actions were cruel towards a defenseless person whose life you cut short,” Judge Reuben Nyakundi told Peter Ushuru Khalumi and David Ekai Lokere during the sentencing hearing at the Court Supreme Court in Eldoret.
Kiplagat’s murder shocked people in Kenya, a country that has seen the murders of several other elite athletes in recent years.
The judge said that Khalumi and Lokere followed Kiplagat, who was in his car, and later CCTV footage showed that they had deliberately killed him in a premeditated act.
On Monday, in an emotional request to the court, the athlete’s mother asked Judge Nyakundi to impose a life sentence.
She told how her son, who began his running career barefoot, worked hard to become an international runner and the family’s breadwinner, the Nation newspaper reported.
“My son has 8,000 [Kenyan] shillings ($62; £48) and an expensive mobile phone, but the killers did not take any of his property. Their mission is to finish him off painfully,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
Although they did not accept the family’s request for a life sentence, they said they were satisfied with the outcome and that justice had been served.
Kiplagat, who has died aged 34, was a finalist in the 3,000m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also competed in the following two Olympics and was the Ugandan record holder at the event .
