Four suspects, among them the wife of slain former marathon champion Samson Kandie, were on Wednesday arraigned in an Eldoret court for his murder.
Kandie, a former Vienna City Marathon Champion, was brutally hacked to death on October 4 within the premises of his Elgon View residence in Eldoret shocking the residents of the idyllic neighbourhood.
Efforts by his family to save him after finding him unresponsive were in vain as he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Real Hospital in Eldoret.
A police report stated that nothing else was missing except his phone which mystified the murder case further.
The investigating officer Felix Chirchir told the Magistrates Court that the four had been hiding out around the city before they were captured in connection with the murder and asked the court to grant them 14 days to carry out more investigations.
"I pray that you grant us 14 days to hold the suspects at Langas Police Station cells pending completion of investigations into the killing of the former international runner at his house in Elgon View estate three weeks ago," Chirchir told the court.
Chirchir also told the court that two more suspects were still at large and that efforts to recover them were ongoing.
The investigator, based at the Kapseret Sub-county added that they have yet to complete recording statements from the suspects and requested the court not to release them on bond or bail in fear of them tampering with the investigation.
Magistrate Peter Ireri of the Magistrate’s Court in Eldoret ordered that the suspects be subjected to a mental assessment test at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) within the next 14 days.
"I will allow the prayers sought by the investigating officers to be allowed to detain the four suspects at the Langas Police Station cells, pending completion of their investigations into the murder incident," Ireri ordered.
The four will remain detained at the Langas Police Station as they await the case to be mentioned in court on November 7.
If his wife is convicted, Kandie will join a flurry of athletes and former athletes who have died in the hands of their significant others in the last few years including Agnes Tirop who was murdered by her husband in 2021, and Uganda’s Rebecca Cheptegei who was burned to death by an ex-partner last month.
