Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei dies after man set her on fire, police say

WARNING: This story contains details of gender-based violence and murder.

A Ugandan Olympic athlete living in Kenya has died from her injuries after being set on fire by a man believed to be her boyfriend, the head of the country's Olympics committee said on Thursday.

"May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women. This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,"Donald Rukare, president of Uganda Olympics Committee, said in a post on X.

Kenyan police and medical officials had previously said Rebecca Cheptegei sufferedburns on 75per cent of her body in an attackon Sunday ather house in the town of Endebess in western Trans Nzoia County, situated along the Kenya-Uganda border.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said Monday that Dickson NdiemaMarangach the Kenyanman reported to beCheptegei'sboyfriend bought a jerrycan of gas, poured it on her and set her ablaze following a disagreement.

Kenya's The Nation reported that 33-year-old Cheptegeihad been at church with her two children Sunday afternoon before the attack happened and that, according to a report filed by a local chief, Marangachsnuckinto her home whileshe was out.

WATCH | 'She was a good child,' says her emotional mother:

Ugandan Olympic marathon runner dies after being set on fire

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Ugandan Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died, days after a man believed to be her boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her on fire. Two other female athletes have died as a result of intimate partner violence in Kenya since 2021.

The local chief'sreport statedbefore the fire started, the pairwas heard fighting over the land on which the house was built.

Marangach also sustained burn wounds to 30 per cent of his body, according to Kenya's The Star.

Both hadbeentaken tothe intensive care unitat the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the city ofEldoret, 90 kilometres south of the town where the attack happened. Kenyan government sports official Peter Tum said Wednesday there had also beenplans to airlift Cheptegei to capital city Nairobi for treatment.

Cheptegei's parents said their daughter bought land in Trans Nzoia to be near the country's many athletic training centres. Her family, speaking to reporters outside the hospital on Tuesday,disputed the claim that Marangach was her boyfriend, saying they were friends who had previously stayed together when she trained in Kenya.

Cheptegei finished44th in the women's marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics last month. She also heldthe Ugandan women's marathon record of 2:22:47, which she set during the Abu Dhabi Marathon in December 2022.

Runners lost to gender-based violence

The United Nations strongly condemned Cheptegei's death.

UNspokespersonStphane Dujarric recalled the words of Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, who said, "We still live in a male-dominated culture that leaves women vulnerable by denying them equality in dignity and rights."

According to UN figures,a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member somewhere in the world every 11 minutes.

Dujarric saidthat "the true numbers are much higher."

The fatal attack on Cheptegei is the latestviolent assault against a noted female runnerin Kenya in a short span of time.

Kenyan long distance runner Agnes Jebet Tirop was killed in October 2021, just months after she competed inthe 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and finished fourth in the women's 5,000-metre final. She was also a two-time, 10,000-metre bronze medallist at the World Athletics Championships.

The 25-year-old was found stabbed to death in her home, in the high-altitude westernKenyan town of Iten,a hub for distance running training centres.

Police arrested herhusband,Ibrahim Rotich, in the coastal city of Mombasa following a manhunt. Authorities allege he was trying to flee the country.

He later pleaded not guilty to her murder. He was released on bail in November 2023.

Her death sparked an outcryand led to the formation of a group called Tirop's Angels, which seeks to educateabout and eradicate gender-based violence.

In April2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee Mutua was found deadnearthe town of Iten,atthe home ofEthiopian runner Koki Foi, who was reported to be her boyfriend.

Apostmortem report statedthe 28-year-oldwas strangled.Police believe Foi fled the country.

Their deaths are a part of what some activists have described as a silent epidemic of gender-based violence in Kenya.

Kenya's Demographic and Health Survey of 2023 found that more than 11 million women or 20 per centof the population have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner during their lives, with 2.8 million of those women having experienced this type of violence in the previous 12 months.

Odipo Dev, a Kenyan research firm, says at least 500 women in Kenya were killed because of their gender from January 2016 to December 2023.