Rebecca Cheptegei, who was making her Olympic debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, died Thursday from injuries and burns. Police say she was set on fire by a man, reportedly a former boyfriend.
Ugandan Olympic runner set on fire by boyfriend
Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei is being treated for burns to 75% of her body after she was set on fire by her boyfriend in Kenya.
without brand – Sport
Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, has died of burns four days after her ex-boyfriend doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, according to police.
The death of 33-year-old Cheptegei, who was admitted to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya on Sunday with burns to more than 75 percent of her body, was announced by the hospital director and the Uganda Athletics Federation.
Cheptegei, who was in the hospital’s intensive care unit, “passed away at 5:30am this morning following organ failure,” Owen Menach, the hospital’s senior director of clinical services, told Reuters. A full report on the circumstances of her death would be released later in the day, he said.
“We have learned of the sad passing of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei… following a brutal attack by her boyfriend,” Uganda Olympic Committee President Donald Rukare said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women.”
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Who was Rebecca Cheptegei?
Cheptegei, who was born and raised in Cheminy, Uganda, had been training in Trans-Nzoia County in western Kenya. She had bought and developed land in Kinyoro, Kenya, to make training in Kenya easier and less expensive, Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported.
Cheptegei made her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics, finishing 44th in the women’s marathon.
She began her career in 2010, competing in 1,500-meter races, 10,000-meter races, half marathons and marathons. She represented Uganda at the 2011 and 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria and Bydgoszcz, The Standard reported.
According to Kenyan online news site TUKO.co.ke, she won the Padova Marathon in Italy in 2022. According to BBC, Cheptegei also won gold at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Cheptegei achieved her fastest marathon performance (2:22:47) and took second place at the Abu Dhabi Marathon in December 2022. This time makes her the second fastest Ugandan marathon runner of all time, according to World Athletics statistics.
Her mother, Agnes Ndiema-Cheptegei, described her daughter as “a good child, very polite and she didn’t have many problems,” Reuters reported.
What happened to Rebecca Cheptegei?
Police said Cheptegei was attacked by her boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, who sneaked into Cheptegei’s house in Endebess, western Kenya, while she was at church with her two children, Kenyan and Ugandan newspapers reported.
“Upon his return, Dickson, who had procured petrol, began pouring it on Rebecca before setting her on fire,” Jeremiah Ole Kosiom, police chief of Trans-Nzoia County, told The Star newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya. “The two were rescued by neighbours who put out the fire and took them to hospital.”
Marangach also suffered burns in the attack, which police described as a domestic dispute, but his condition is improving and he is stable, the BBC reported.
Joseph Cheptegei, Cheptegei’s father, said their daughter and Marangach have been separated for a long time and are involved in a land dispute over their land in western Kenya. The two were due to appear before the Kenyan Criminal Investigation Department, The Standard reported.
“The country … has brought problems,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding that he had asked the government to protect their children and property “so that no one enters their house and takes anything.”
Kosiom confirmed that there was a dispute between Rebecca Cheptegei and Marangach over their land and said police were continuing to investigate.
Rebecca Cheptegei is the third athlete to die in Kenya within three years
Cheptegei was the third elite athlete to be killed in Kenya since October 2021.
Peter Ogwang, Uganda’s minister of state for sports, said Kenyan authorities were investigating the killing, which has highlighted the violence faced by women in the East African country.
Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described her death as a loss “for the entire region”.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which has reared its ugly head in elite sport circles in recent years,” he said in a statement.
Nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence, according to Kenyan government data from 2022. The survey also found that 41% of married women have experienced violence.
According to a 2022 report by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), African countries overall recorded the highest number of femicides, both in absolute numbers and relative to the size of the continent’s female population.
In April 2022, Kenyan-born long-distance runner Damaris Muthee, who competed for Bahrain, was found strangled in the house in Iten, Kenya, where she was training, the BBC reported.
In October 2021, 25-year-old Olympic runner Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s highly competitive athletics scene, was found dead in her home in the town of Iten with multiple stab wounds to the neck. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. The case is still ongoing.
After Tirop’s murder, athletes formed the group Tirop’s Angels to combat domestic violence. One of its founders, Joan Chelimo, told Reuters that female athletes face a high risk of exploitation and violence from men attracted to their money.
“They fall into the traps of sex offenders who pose as lovers in their lives,” she said.
Contributors: Reuters
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