Nairobi. Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon last August (she finished 44th), died on Thursday, four days after her partner doused her with gasoline and set her on fire in front of their daughters.
This latest case of femicide in the world of athletics in Kenya has sparked a wave of condemnation.
The 33-year-old marathon runner “died at around 5:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. GMT), Kimani Mbugua, the doctor in charge of the intensive care unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the town of Eldoret, told reporters.
“The wounds covered most of his body. This led to the failure of several organs. We did our best, but we were not successful,” he added.
“Given his age and the burns covering more than 80 percent of his body, there was little hope of recovery,” he said.
According to a police report, the suspect, identified as Dickson Ndiema Marangach, broke into Rebecca Cheptegei’s property at around 2 p.m. (11 a.m. GMT) on Sunday while she was at church with her daughters.
The marathon runner lived with her sister and two daughters in a house she had built in Endebess, the town where she trained, 25 kilometers from the border with Uganda, said her father Joseph Cheptegei.
When they returned from church, the suspect doused her with gasoline and set her on fire in front of her daughters, ages 9 and 11, the newspaper reported. The Standard.
The police report describes Rebecca Cheptegei and Dickson Ndiema Marangach as “a couple who constantly had family arguments.”
Unanimous condemnation
Paris Olympics, athletics officials and women’s rights activists condemned the killing.
“We are deeply shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic death of Rebecca Cheptegei, a great athlete who we were proud to have and who contributed to the success of the Paris Games,” the organisers of the Olympic Games said in a statement.
“This heinous crime reminds us of the alarming reality of violence against women. We express our full solidarity with Rebecca Cheptegei’s family, loved ones and the Ugandan National Olympic Committee,” they added.
In a message on X, the president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, Donald Rukare, denounced “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.” “We strongly condemn violence against women,” he said.
Kenya’s athletics committee, Athletics Kenya, said that “her untimely and tragic death is a profound loss” and demanded in a statement “an end to gender-based violence.”
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– 2024-09-12 19:57:03
