Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei passed away a few days after her ex-boyfriend doused her in fuel and set her on fire. Following the attack on Sunday, the 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner—who recently participated in the Olympics in Paris—suffered from severe burns.
Cheptegei lived and trained in north-west Kenya. According to the local authorities, she was targeted when she and her two girls came home from church.
Joseph Cheptegei, her father, announced that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. James Kirwa, a fellow racer from Uganda, spoke with the BBC about her magnanimity and how she had provided financial support to other runners.
The sportswoman and her ex-partner allegedly fought over a plot of land, according to a report submitted by a municipal official. According to police, an investigation is ongoing. Cheptegei, who is believed to have purchased a site in Trans Nzoia County and constructed a home close to Kenya’s top training facilities for athletes, is from a region just across the border in Uganda.
In Kenya, attacks on women have grown to be a serious problem. In 2022, a nationwide poll revealed that at least 34% of women reported having been victims of physical abuse. Kenya’s Minister of Sports, Kipchumba Murkomen, stated, “This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports.”
Speaking to reporters outside the medical facility where she had received care, Cheptegei requested that the Kenyan government see to it that his daughter’s death was handled justly. He continued, saying, “We have lost our breadwinner,” and expressed concern over how her two daughters, who are now 12 and 13, would “proceed with their education.”
At Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Dr. Kimani Mbugua, a consultant, told the local media that although the athlete’s injuries were treated to the best of their ability, she “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [06:30 MUT]”.
The BBC was informed by Kirwa, who had visited Cheptegei in the hospital, that she “was a very affable person. [She] provided us all with financial support and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me.”
