Tirop’s family partners with athletes to launch a foundation

Following the senseless killing of Olympian and 10km world record holder Agnes Tirop, athletes led by female elite runners have founded an organization named ‘Tirop’s Angels’ standing in unity against gender-based violence. 

“Four out of ten women in Kenya are likely to face gender-based violence (GBV) in their lifetime. Agnes Jebet Tirop was one of them. She was brutally murdered. We declare we will keep silent no more. We declare that some of us have been abused. We declare that some of us are being abused. We declare that we are coming together. We declare that GBV must be stopped forever,” read a statement from the foundation’s social media pages. 

Next year's World Athletics Cross Country Tour in Eldoret to be named after Tirop

With the support of the Nandi County Government, Tirop's Angels is the brainchild of Kenyan athletes and Tirop’s family. “We will work, educate, lobby and help hold accountable those who perpetrate crimes and injustices against the vulnerable, women and children, especially. Agnes Jebet Tirop was murdered. Our responsibility is to keep her name alive and ever-present as we work in her memory to better our communities and our motherland,” the statement continues. 

Tirop’s father Vincent Tirop remembers his daughter as beautiful, smiling and brave. “Her dreams have been cut short, as she was killed and robbed of her rights by someone she knew very well. It should never happen again. Gender-based violence must stop,” he says. 

During Agnes’ burial on 23 October 2021, on a day she was supposed to be celebrating her 26th birthday, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed expanded the mandate of the Ministerial Committee on Gender Welfare in Sports to include Tirop's case, directing the Committee to present her with a report last week.

“We will thereafter hold an Agnes Tirop press conference, in her honour, and present the findings of the task force to the public," Amina offered in a statement. The press conference, however, is yet to be held.