A Facebook post by a woman claiming to have been in a love relationship with athlete Nicholas Bett who died on August 8, has added an unexpected twist to the runner’s life.
Indeed, as his body was being laid to rest at his Simat home in Uasin Gishu County on August 16, a silent storm of uncertainty was gathering pace.
The woman, identified as Brenda Cheruto, in her Facebook post, mourned a man she claims was her husband.
“I will always remember your words every morning. That, ‘babe: I have told you I’m your dad, not only your hubby, and I feel very safe in your hands.’ Words can never describe your kindness, those who were close to you know the kind of person you were,” Brenda Cheruto wrote on Facebook.
Cheruto spoke to The Nairobian about a love she shared with the champion who was scheduled to leave the country, having recently secured a contract with a Turkish club.
“Bett was my husband and pillar of life, and we have a daughter together,” she told The Nairobian.
As Cheruto was penning her heartfelt condolences, hundreds of kilometres away in Uasin Gishu, Bett’s wife, Gladys, was also pouring out her heart to her lost love.
Her tribute to her husband read in part: “I have lost a golden heart. I celebrate you, my sweetheart. You always loved us. You loved me like your own sister.”
Gladys is married to Bett and together they have three children.
Glady’s tribute did not go down well with Cheruto, who accused her and the family of editing her tribute and making it their own.
In an exclusive interview with The Nairobian, Cheruto opened up about her relationship with the sprinter, who died in a grisly road accident on August 8 as he was heading home from Nairobi.
Bett, the 2015 world champion in the 400 metres hurdles, died after his car hit a bump and rolled several times. Bett had just returned to the country a day earlier after taking part in the African Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria.
“He (Bett) landed from Nigeria on Monday evening (August 6), and I welcomed him at the airport. He was calm as we proceeded home. We did not go out for dinner as we had anticipated but headed straight home. He did not sleep either that night, as he claimed he had slept on the plane,” Cheruto told The Nairobian.
She added that: “I drifted to sleep and left him listening to some local gospel music around midnight. I woke up in the morning and found him still wide awake. That was unlike him.”
Cheruto told The Nairobian that Bett was scheduled to see a doctor the following day after sustaining an injury in Nigeria. Thereafter he was to travel to Eldoret.
“I was to drive him to Eldoret on the fateful morning, but I changed my mind at the last minute after our daughter started showing signs of sickness,” Cheruto narrated to The Nairobian.
She explained that “He looked different and the way he talked was unlike him. I had never heard him talk like that. He confessed his undying love for me and our daughter and asked that I pray for him. In particular, he wanted me to teach him how to fast.”
Cheruto recalls Bett kissing her on the stairway and asking her to take care of their daughter as she went back to sleep. It caught her attention that Bett had left behind his bangles that bear his name.
“When I called him on the phone, he told me he was so far and was already in Limuru. I hanged up and called him after an hour. But a stranger picked the phone and wanted to know how I am related to Bett. Right away, I knew something was wrong,” says Cheruto who has been called sorts of names on social media after she came out about her relationship with the athlete.
She, however, told The Nairobian that she has no plans of engaging in a battle over her share of the wealth the ‘Kenyan style’.
“He is gone and I respect him because he loved me. If the family will take care of his child, that would be fine. But I will not impose and I am ready to take care of our daughter because Nicholas taught me to be humble in life. I’ve not come out now that he is gone. I was there before. I am not interested in his wealth, because he is the one who worked for it,” she stated.
Cheruto says she first met Bett at her father’s burial in 2016. They fell in love while she was a college student in Ruiru.
Bett, who was at the time a traffic police officer based in Kisumu, was transferred to Lang’ata in Nairobi. It was then that they started living together as she was expecting his child
