Gang breaks into Ndereba's Karen home, robs her

Catherine Nyambura Ndereba is a Kenyan marathon runner. She has twice won the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics and won silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

 

Nairobi, Kenya: A gang raided the Nairobi home of former marathon world record holder Catherine Ndereba and robbed her of household goods and cash.

Police said the gang also stole Kenya Prisons uniforms from the Karen house of the two-time world marathon champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist.

She is still serving at the prisons service as a warder.

Ms Ndereba and her family were unhurt in the Monday night incident.

Police said Ndereba, who won four Boston Marathons and two Chicago Marathons, was at home at the time of the attack

The gang escaped with electronics goods and cash valued at about Sh360,000.

Ndereba visited Langata police station later yesterday to record her statement.

“It was raining heavily when the gang raided.

“The marathoner was not wounded in the attack but lost some goods from the house where she was with her family,” said police spokeswoman Gatiria Mboroki.

Mboroki said efforts by the police to trace the attackers were futile as it was raining heavily and that the attackers escaped on foot.

It is not clear how the gang managed to scale the heavily fortified home and later broke into the house where the family was resting.

Ndereba announced her retirement from competitive running last year.

She twice won the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics and won silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

She is also a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon. Ndereba broke the women’s marathon world record in 2001.

Known as “Catherine the Great,” Ndereba made her marathon debut in Boston in 1998.

In 2000, she won Boston and Chicago. She set a world record of 2:18:47 in 2001 while winning her second Chicago title.

She also won Boston in 2000, 2004, and 2005. Her two world titles came in 2003 and 2007.

She won the silver medal in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic marathons.