The High Court in Eldoret has directed that Ibrahim Rotich, the prime suspect in the murder of athlete Agnes Tirop, be taken for mental assessment at the Moi Referral Hospital before being charged on November 16 with the murder of the athlete. The lawyer representing the accused Mr. Ngige Mbugua said the defence was not opposed to the application for mental assessment.

Rotich first appeared before Resident Magistrate Naomi Wairimu in Iten after being held for 20 days to facilitate investigations into the death of the athlete. Rotich is expected to answer to murder charges on Tuesday next week.

Tirop was on October 13 found dead in her house in Iten where she lived with Rotich. A postmortem revealed that she died after being stabbed on the neck and being hit by a blunt object in the head.