KEVIN KIPRONO ROTICH

Eldoret marathon runner who coached village children barefoot on the Kapseret road

It is with heavy hearts and humble acceptance of God's will that we announce the sudden passing of KEVIN KIPRONO ROTICH, athlete and founder of Kapseret Young Runners, on 16th January 2024 at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Eldoret. Son of Joel Kiprotich and Hellen Chepkoech Rotich; brother to Faith and Brian; partner to Naomi Cherono. Family and friends meet daily at Kapseret, Eldoret, at 5.00 pm. Cortege leaves Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Mortuary on Tuesday 23rd January at 8.00 am for a funeral service at AIC Kapseret Church, followed by burial at the family farm. M-Pesa Paybill 512974, Account KEVIN. Run well, brother.

Kevin Kiprono Rotich ran his first race at nine, barefoot, in a borrowed vest, along the murram road that passes his parents' farm at Kapseret. He came fourth, cried for ten minutes, and then asked his mother when the next one was. She told him it would be on Saturday. For twenty-five years after that, there was always a next one.

He was the third of four children, and he grew up between the dairy shed and the school fields. At Kapseret Secondary he won the county cross-country title three years running, and in 2009 he joined a training camp in Iten. He won the Eldoret Half Marathon in 2016 and 2018, finished fourth in a European marathon in 2019, and once ran a personal best in a borrowed pair of shoes after his own were stolen at a hotel. He never complained about it.

Kevin was never as proud of any medal as he was of the Kapseret Young Runners, a group he started in 2017 for children who could not afford shoes. He coached them every Saturday at dawn, taught them to breathe through the nose and to thank every hill, and personally paid for forty pairs of running shoes from his prize money. Three of his young runners have since earned scholarships to universities in the United States.

He loved ugali with fried sukuma wiki, gospel music on the radio and long Sunday lunches with his mother. He was a modest man who always arrived early and left late, and who laughed loudest at his own mistakes.

Kevin died suddenly of a short illness on 16 January 2024, aged thirty-four. The whole of Eldoret came out to run a slow mile for him the following Saturday.

He is survived by his parents, his sister Faith, his brother Brian and his partner Naomi, who are carrying on his Saturday runs.

“Thank every hill; it is teaching you something.”