London: Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died after being set on fire allegedly by her boyfriend in Kenya, Uganda’s Olympic Committee chief said.
“We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei ... following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare said in a post on social media.
Rebecca Cheptegei competes in the Discovery 10km road race in Kapchorwa, Uganda last year. Credit: AP
Cheptegei, 33, had sustained burns to 80 per cent of her body on Sunday, the acting head of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the Rift Valley city of Eldorect where she was being treated, told reporters.
“All her organs failed last night,” a medic at the facility told AFP on Thursday.
Police had said a man named as Dickson Ndiema Marangach, identified as her partner, had allegedly doused Cheptegei with petrol and set her alight on Sunday at her home in Endebess in the western county of Trans-Nzoia.
Cheptegei competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, where she placed 44th.
Kenyan media reported that one of Cheptegei’s daughters witnessed the assault.
“He kicked me while I tried to run to the rescue of my mother,” Kenya’s The Standard reported her as saying.
“I immediately cried out for help, attracting a neighbour who tried to extinguish the flames with water, but it was not possible,” said the girl, who has not been named.
Marangach was also wounded in the incident, sustaining burns to 30 per cent of his body.
The assault comes two years after Kenyan-born athlete Damaris Mutua was found dead in Iten, a world-famous running hub in the Rift Valley.
In 2021, record-breaking Kenyan runner Agnes Tirop, 25, was stabbed to death at her home also in Iten. Her estranged husband is on trial over her murder. He has denied the charges.
Latest figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics published in January 2023 found that 34 per cent of women in the country had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
The Telegraph, London
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