United States Environmental Protection AgencyUgandan Olympic marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her ex-boyfriend and later died, is expected to be buried with state honors on Saturday.
Dickson Ndiema attacked her with petrol less than two weeks ago outside her home in northwestern Kenya, near where she trained.
The 33-year-old woman’s murder and its brutal nature have left her family heartbroken and shocked many others around the world.
It highlights the high levels of violence against women in Kenya and the fact that several female athletes have been victims in recent years.
Cheptegei died in hospital four days after the attack. Doctors said she had suffered burns to more than 80% of her body, “leading to multiple organ failure”.
Ndiema, who also suffered burns from some of the fuel that was splashed on him, died on Monday.
He attacked the mother-of-two after she returned from a service at God’s Dwelling Ministry church.
The pastor there, Caroline Atieno, remembers a “wonderful man… God-fearing.”
After hearing about what happened, she tried to talk to Cheptegei on the phone while she was at the hospital.
The first athlete asked about her children, both were fine, the pastor said. BBC Africa Daily Podcast.
Cheptegei then said of her attacker: “You mean Dickson couldn’t see all the things I did for him? He couldn’t even remember one or two things I did for him and stop burning me? Why did he do that to me?”
ReutersCheptegei’s funeral was held in Bukwo, her family’s hometown in Uganda and near the Kenyan border.
On Friday, family members, friends and anti-gender violence activists paid their respects to her coffin at a funeral home in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, before it was taken away by car.
Her mother, Agnes Cheptegei, covered her face in anguish, carrying the souvenir bag the athlete received at the recent Paris Olympics, where she finished 44th in the marathon.
She wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Being a woman is not a death sentence” printed on it.
The mother of two is the third female athlete to be murdered in Kenya in the past three years. In each case, police have named current or former partners as prime suspects.
In 2021, world record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death and six months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.
Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. According to a national survey, in 2022, at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence.
Some observers say female athletes are becoming increasingly vulnerable.
“[This is] because they go against traditional gender norms where women are just in the kitchen, cooking and taking care of the children. But now, female athletes are becoming more independent, more financially independent,” said Joan Chelimo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels to help highlight the issue of violence against women.
“We don’t want this to happen to any other woman, whether an athlete or a villager, or a young girl,” Rachel Kamweru, a spokeswoman for the government’s gender and positive action department, told the BBC.
When Cheptegei started running, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 and received support from them.
Her last race was at the Paris Olympics. Although she finished 44th, people back home still call her “the champion”.
She won gold at the World Trail Running and Mountaineering Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.
Getty Images/BBC
