Slain Ugandan Athlete Benjamin Kiplagat To Be Buried In Kenya.
Benjamin Kiplagat who was stabbed to death will be buried in Kenya on Thursday.
The family of the slain Ugandan steeplechase runner kiplagat Benjamin Edward has made the decision toto bury him in ancestral home Kenya on 11th January, 2023 following several family meetings.
“Our ancestral home is just across the border in Transzoia. That is why Kiplangat will not be laid to rest in Uganda but in the neighbouring village of Kamendi on the Kenyan side of the border,” a family source said.
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According to Rotich Oscar, a resident of Kamendi village, the family of the slain sportsman believe burying him in Kenya will help provide the peace and privacy they need to mourn their loved one.
“As the cross-border community residing at the Uganda-Kenya border, most of us are like Kiplagat in the way that part of the family is in Kenya and another across (in Uganda). So, whichever decision the family makes should be honored”, he said.
Kiplagat having been a popular international figure with a number of friends and fans questioned the family’s decision.
Speaking to Vision sports, Diba Innocent an ardent fan of Kiplagat revealed that “his death makes it difficult for the Ugandan government to offer him a deserved state burial”.
Kiplagat was a member of the Global Sports Communication Management agency and sources close to the family revealed that burying the sportsman in Kenya and not Uganda was not taken lightly.
Chemutai Joel, another Ugandan fan from Kween district had expectations that his idol would be buried in Sebei region. He believed that the family opting for Kenya as his final resting place was not a symbolic move to separate Kiplagat from the circumstances that led to his untimely death.
One of the deceased’s mentors and scouts, Coach Cheptoek William, however, encouraged members of the public to respect the family’s decision.
“The family is grappling with unimaginable grief and has prioritized the need for Kiplagat to be buried in Kenya; perhaps they considered it a secure and serene final resting place for their son,” Cheptoek revealed.
On 2nd January 2023, police reported that the body of the 34-year-old runner was discovered in his car with a deep knife wound on his neck.
Police investigations revealed that Kiplagat had been attacked by two men after he reportedly hit their boda boda with his car.
According to the local police commander Okal Stephen, the two men in their 30s were arrested in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret and they are criminals who have been known for terrorizing the members of the public.
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