The suspect in the murder of marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei died Monday night, a hospital in western Kenya where he was being treated told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, September 10. He died from burns caused when he set fire to the Ugandan marathon runner, who died on September 5.
Presented by the Kenyan police as the athlete’s companion, Dickson Ndiema Marangach was burned 30% during this fatal attack, which has become an emblematic case of violence against women.
The 1is September, the man doused Rebecca Cheptegei with petrol and set her ablaze as she was returning from church with her children to her home in Endebess, western Kenya. The 33-year-old athlete died a few days later with burns to more than 80% of her body. She will be buried Saturday in her family’s village in eastern Uganda.
Numerous femicides in Kenya
According to Rebecca Cheptegei’s father, the attack stemmed from a dispute over the land his daughter had purchased to build her house.
The murder, which came just weeks after she finished forty-fourth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, sparked global outrage and outrage. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said: “firmly” condemned this “violent murder”, “which illustrates a broader problem that is too often ignored”that of violence against women. The City of Paris has announced that it will give the name of Rebecca Cheptegei to a sports site.
The marathon runner’s death comes on top of many victims of gender-based violence in Kenya, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has recorded the deaths of 725 women in gender-related killings in 2022.
The world of athletics has been bereaved three times in three years by this type of murder. In October 2021, promising athlete Agnes Tirop (25 years old), double world bronze medalist in the 10,000m (2017, 2019) and fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in the 5,000m, was found stabbed to death at her home in Iten, a famous training ground for long-distance running in the Rift Valley. Her husband, Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, is being prosecuted for murder. He denies the charges. His trial is ongoing.
In April 2022, a Bahraini athlete of Kenyan origin, Damaris Mutua, was found dead in Iten. Her partner, who is on the run, is suspected of having killed her.
Read also | Death of Kenyan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei reignites debate on domestic violence
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