Tirop’s Angels: How the death of one of the world’s most promising athletes began a movement against gender-based violence

On 12 September 2021, Agnes Tirop set a new women’s only 10km road running world record in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Just five weeks later she had been killed at her home in Iten, Kenya, with her husband Ibrahim Rotich currently standing trial accused of her murder.

Tirop had grown up in Kenya, the seventh of 10 children, and had shown an early aptitude for athletics that stemmed from the days she would run five kilometres to and from school with her brother Martin.

While still in secondary school she was identified as someone with the talent to make it to the very top of her sport. It was at that time she met her future husband Rotich, who offered to become her coach.

From the outside, Tirop’s life looked like a sporting fairytale as she went from strength to strength, winning bronze in the 10,000m at both the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London and the following World Championships in Doha in 2019, and narrowly missed out on the podium when she came fourth in the 5,000m race at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021.

But few knew the full details of her life at home and her tumultuous and toxic relationship with her husband, which she kept secret from her friends and training partners.

Tirop's sister told the court at the start of Rotich's trial in November 2023 that he had physically assaulted Agnes on many occasions. He denies the charges.

Her death just days later shook the world of athletics to its core. The subsequent claims about the abusive nature of her marriage opened many people’s eyes to an issue that plagues many young female athletes in Kenya: Gender-based violence.

A rallying cry that united athletes against a cause

At Tirop’s funeral, which took place on what would have been her 26th birthday, loved ones and family cried together as they mourned the young athlete’s death.

But when friend and fellow elite runner Violah Lagat stepped up to give a speech in honour of Tirop, the words she used became a rallying call for female athletes in Kenya who were aware that, rather than being an isolated incident, Tirop’s situation was just one example of a deep-rooted issue in the African nation.

“Today I am here because of one issue: this gender-based violence issue,” Lagat told the gathered crowd. “I am standing here because something has to be done. And it has to be done now, not tomorrow, not any other day, it has to start today.

“We are here because we are putting our sister to rest but we are also here to raise our voices. We need to be heard as women, we need people to understand that we are not tools, we are not anyone’s property.

“Men, understand this, we are athletes but we are also someone’s children. Please respect us, please love us, please value our hard work…

“If you are not going to do anything for me, for my sister, for my mother and the generation to come, please go home.”

The birth of Tirop’s Angels

Irishman Colm O'Connell is known as the “The Godfather of Kenyan Running” and the work he has done in the country since arriving in the Rift Valley as a Catholic missionary in 1976 has resulted in four of his charges winning Olympic gold medals – David Rudisha, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in 800m at London 2012 and Rio 2016; Brimin Kipruto (Beijing 2008) and Matthew Birir (Barcelona 1992) in the men's 3000m steeplechase; and Vivian Cheruiyot in the women's 5,000m at Rio 2016.

In the late 1980s, Brother O'Connell set up his first female-only running groups in Kenya and he now has 120 training camps across the country.

He spoke to a recent Bloomberg documentary about how men began visiting the training camps looking for young, vulnerable female runners to target for their own personal gain.

“There are men, if I could use the phrase ‘lurking around’ and they’re prepared to cash in on somebody else’s efforts and energies,” he said. “They are opportunists. They see this as a way of enhancing themselves, as a way of getting on in life themselves. As you become a successful person, you’re an easy target.”

Usually, these men would come with a proposal to become the athlete’s coach, offering necessities like food, shelter, or running equipment.

As two-time Boston Half Marathon champion Joan Chelimo explained: “Many of the female runners being abused by their coaches are being taken advantage of, first because they are young, second because they don’t know their rights, and coaches try to manipulate athletes by giving them maybe a pair of shoes or connecting them with agents.

“Remember, these girls are from really humble backgrounds.”

Soon after Tirop’s funeral, Lagat, Chelimo and other friends in the athletics community decided to take action. They were tired of the stories of abuse they had heard first-hand and the lack of reaction from authorities and society.

So, along with Agnes’s family, they founded the non-governmental organisation, Tirop’s Angels.

What does Tirop’s Angels do?

The mission of Tirop’s Angels is to change society from the inside, beginning with educating young girls about gender-based violence.

“We go to the villages, we go to athletics camps, we also visit schools, and for us to change [the] culture we have to start with the young generation,” Chelimo explains about the wide-ranging work Tirop’s Angels are doing in a bid to “eradicate gender-based violence”.

“In the past you would find most female athletes, their money would be taken away by their husbands. Now things have changed because we are making the agents send the money to the athletes, and for them to have their own bank accounts.

“Today, if one girl is being abused in Iten, they will call Tirop’s Angels. Years back that would not happened.”

“We try to empower them and also talk to them about what gender-based violence is, on a shallow level because they don’t understand it quite well until they are a little bit older,” Lagat explained in an interview with CGTN Africa. “So we still want them to understand what it is and to spot those signs early enough, so that in that way they do not fall victims.”

The work of the NGO does not stop there.

Right now, the athletes are fighting to have the laws changed in Kenya to increase the amount of jail time for perpetrators, and also have plans to set up a 24-hour hotline, counselling, and healthcare services to help and support victims of gender-based violence.

Many other female athletes have either been part of Tirop’s Angels since its inception or have since joined, such as Mary Keitany, Peres Jepchirchir, Brenda Jepleting and Caroline Chepkwony. There are also a growing number of male athletes that have shown their support, including the likes of Haile Gebrselassie and Amos Kipruto.

Sponsors have also taken the cause to heart with the Tirop’s Angels logo now found emblazoned on running vests that have been worn by the likes of reigning 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles, Kenyan runners paying tributes to Tirop during the 2021 New York Marathon, and in March 2023 more than 1,000 athletes took part in the inaugural Agnes Tirop Memorial Race in Kenya.

But the work of Tirop’s Angels is far from over as they continue to look at ways to fight gender-based violence in Africa and across the world.

"We are yet to achieve our target (of eradicating gender-based violence) and we still have a long way to go but we will get there," Lagat said in a speech before this year’s Memorial Race. 

“We are just in the first phase of our battle against GBV (gender-based violence)... we must continue hammering the point home."