Did Asbel Kiprop impregnate 16-year-old junior world champ?

     Sammary Cherotich the estranged wife of 1500 Metre athletics champion Asbel Kiprop at The Standard Group's offices in Eldoret. The two are engaged in a legal tussle over the custody of their 5 year old boy. With her is Leonard Bett (Sammary's relative. 23-10-2014. PHOTOS BY: KEVIN TUNOI

World and Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop has been accused of kidnapping a minor, brandishing a pistol and threatening to kill a woman he has had a relationship with for half a decade.

On one occasion, Asbel, a police inspector who is alleged to be ill tempered, is accused of having pointed a gun at his lover in front of her son and house help.

“He has ill-tempered, having threatened to kill me on several occasions, most recently on October 17 when he pointed a pistol at me,” Sammary Cherotich, Asbel’s longtime lover, said in a replying affidavit in a court case where the athletic champ is seeking custody of a five year old boy.

Cherotich accuses Asbel of kidnapping her son from school and taking him to unknown destination thereby denying the child motherly love and attention. Cherotich, a 1500 metre gold medalist who took the crown at the IAAF World Youth Athletics Championships at Ostrava, Czech Republic in 2007, said she left her matrimonial home after the violence escalated.

“Asbel used to physically attack me in the presence of my son and hence I left my matrimonial home for my safety and that of my child and went and put up with my sister,” said Cherotich in her affidavit.

According to Cherotich, she met the athlete in Eldoret and it was love at first sight and in no time, she was pregnant.

She explained that her relatives thought she was staying at Golazo Camp, an athletics residential camp in Eldoret not knowing she was shacking up with the track star. At the age of 16, in mid-2008, the junior champion was forced to drop out of school.

Cherotich said she endured his arrogance and abuses for the sake of the child, but it got worse in 2012 after he physically assaulted her, injuring her where she had had an operation in the abdomen. She claims she feared for her life after the gun incident and ran away from the ‘abusive’ athlete’s home.

The affidavit drawn and filed by M/S D.L Were and Were Company Advocates is a replying affidavit to a suit by Asbel against Cherotich on allegations that she had abandoned the child.

Cherotich says that she had enrolled the boy at a private school in Eldoret and had been taking care of the welfare of the minor.

“To my shock, Asbel went to the school and picked the boy. I have never seen him since. He has actually sworn that I will never see my child again,” she said.

Cherotich explained that she reported the matter at Naiberi Police Station and was advised to seek further assistance from the Eldoret Children’s Department.

She added that it was then that Asbel, whom she claims has been sending her abusive texts and his present girlfriend’s pictures, was summoned to the Children’s Department for mediation. The matter was referred to the Children’s Court when mediation failed.

A text on WhatsApp seen to The Nairobian reads, “Natural disaster. You don’t even qualify to be my wife. Emma has what it takes to be. Sikuwezi coz you’re not sweet for me. That’s why I normally go out.” Asbel then allegedly sent subsequent photos of him holding a light-skinned woman.

Cherotich alleged that the girl in the pictures is a Form Four student whom she identified as Lydiah* from Embu.

“He ruined my life because I was young and naïve. Now he’s probably on the same mission with this girl he is bragging about,” said the 22-year-old.