LONDON — Ugandan long-distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died four days after she was doused in petrol and set on fire by her former partner, authorities said.
Cheptegei, who was receiving treatment at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret City, Kenya, succumbed to her injuries after sustaining burns to nearly 80 per cent of her body in the attack on Sunday.
Cheptegei was doused with gasoline and set on fire during a dispute over land, according to a police report. Moi University Hospital said Cheptegei died at the age of 33 after organ failure on Thursday, according to hospital spokesman Owen Menach.
“We have learned of the sad passing of our Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei following a violent attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare, president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, told X on Thursday. “May her soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women. It was a cowardly and senseless act that led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will live on.”
Agnes Cheptegei, the mother of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei who died after her boyfriend set her on fire, speaks in Eldoret, Kenya, September 5, 2024.
Reuters
The Ugandan marathoner had recently competed in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing in 44th place with a personal best time this season of 2:32:14, just a month before the fatal attack.
The Ugandan athlete was living in northwestern Kenya, with her father saying she had recently bought land in Trans Nzoia County to build a house and be closer to Kenya’s athletics training centres.
Cheptegei’s Kenyan partner who carried out the attack – identified as Dickson Ndiema – reportedly suffered “serious burns” in the attack and is receiving treatment at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
The Uganda Athletics Federation said it was “deeply saddened” by Cheptegei’s death.
“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei, early this morning, tragically a victim of domestic violence,” the federation announced on Thursday. “As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice.”
Uganda’s Rebecca Cheptegei during the women’s marathon final in Budapest on August 26, 2023.
Dylan Martinez/Reuters, ARCHIVES
The incident is the latest in a series of cases of domestic violence against female athletes in Kenya.
In 2021, Kenyan long-distance runner Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death in her home in Iten, northwestern Kenya. A few weeks earlier, the rising track star had set a new women’s 10-kilometre road race record at the “Adizero: Road to Records” event in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
Tirop’s husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was later arrested and charged with the young woman’s murder. The case is still ongoing.
Barely a year later, in 2022, Kenyan-Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee Mutua, 28, was found murdered in her home in the same city, with Kenya’s Criminal Investigations Directorate saying the cause of death was strangulation.
Kenyan police have launched a manhunt for Mutua’s Ethiopian boyfriend, Eskinder Hailemaryam Folie, who is the prime suspect in her murder and is believed to have fled Kenya.
