She finished 44th in the Paris Olympics marathon in 2 hours 32 minutes and 14 seconds. Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei died on Thursday, September 5, from burns after her partner set her on fire in western Kenya on Sunday. “We have learned of the sad passing of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei following a violent attack by her boyfriend. May her soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women,” announced the president of the Ugandan Olympic Committee, Donald Rukare, in a message on X, deploring “a cowardly and senseless act that led to the loss of a great athlete.”
According to a police report, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the Kenyan partner of the 33-year-old athlete, had broken into her house in Endebess (Trans-Nzoia County, West), while she was at church with her children. When they returned, he had “poured gasoline on Rebecca before setting her on fire”the document details, adding that the man was also burned by the flames. The motive for the attack is not known, as is the health of the children.
“Cheptegei is in intensive care in critical condition after suffering burns of more than 80%”said Owen Menach, acting director of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, a large town in the Rift Valley where the athlete was being treated, on Tuesday, September 3. He added: “The burns were really very severe, some of them very deep, especially in the back muscles. […] We are doing everything we can to save his life.” Dickson Ndiema Marangach, hospitalized in the same establishment, suffered 30% burns.
Rebecca Cheptegei had settled in Endebess, a town 25 kilometres from the Ugandan border where she trained, after buying land and building a house there, according to Kenyan media. With her partner, they trained “a couple who constantly had family disputes”the police report said. According to law enforcement, “A 5-litre jerrycan, a bag and a black cap believed to belong to Dickson and a burnt mobile phone believed to belong to Rebecca were found” at the scene of the tragedy.
Several similar dramas in Kenya
In recent years, several tragedies have cast a shadow over the world of athletics in Kenya. In April 2022, the body of Damaris Mutua, a Bahraini athlete of Kenyan origin, was found in Iten – a famous training ground for long-distance running on the plateaus of the Rift Valley. Her partner is suspected of having killed her. Six months earlier, the promising 25-year-old athlete Agnes Tirop – double world bronze medallist in the 10,000m (2017, 2019) and 4th in the Tokyo Olympics in the 5,000m – was found stabbed to death at her home in Iten. Her husband, Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, who denies the accusations, is currently being prosecuted for murder.
According to a study by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) published in January 2023, 34% of women living in Kenya have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. Married women “are much more likely to have experienced violence”the study estimated, stressing that 41% of married women reported such incidents compared to 20% of single women.
Updated this Thursday, September 5 at 8:35 a.m. with the death of Rebecca Cheptegei.
