“Heinous crime”, “femicide”, “senseless violence”: the world of sport and women’s rights associations condemned on Thursday the death in Kenya of Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, burned alive by a man presented as her companion.
The 33-year-old athlete, who took part in the marathon at the Paris Olympics (44e), died Thursday at 5:30 a.m. local time.
Burned “more than 80%,” she succumbed to “multiple organ failure,” said Kimani Mbugua, head of the intensive care unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the town of Eldoret.
She was hospitalized on Sunday after being doused with gasoline and set alight in her home by a man, identified as Dickson Ndiema Marangach, as she was returning from church with her children.
The marathon runner lived with her sister and her two daughters, aged 9 and 11, according to the Kenyan daily. The Standardin a house she had built in Endebess, the town where she trained, 25 kilometres from the Ugandan border.
A police report described the athlete and the suspect as “a couple who had constant family disputes.”
According to Rebecca Cheptegei’s father, the attack stemmed from a dispute over the land his daughter had purchased to build her house.
Also burned and hospitalized, the suspect is in a “stable” condition, on artificial respiration, the interim director of the MRTH Owen Menach told AFP, adding that “he is now under police surveillance 24 hours a day.”
“Femicide”
The announcement of this murder aroused strong emotion.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the “horrible attack.”
“The news of the tragic death of our daughter, Rebecca Cheptegei, as a result of domestic violence is deeply disturbing,” Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni, who is also Minister of Sports, reacted on X.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to address gender-based violence in our society, which has emerged in elite sporting circles in recent years,” Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement.
For the organizers of the Paris Games, this “odious crime recalls the alarming reality of violence which affects too many women in society.”
“Yes, it is a femicide. We must put an end to femicides,” said Njeri Migwi, co-founder of the association “Usikimye” (“Don’t stay silent” in Swahili), a shelter for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, on X.
This death comes on top of those of many other women in Kenya, where 152 femicides were recorded in 2023 by the organization Femicide Count Kenya, which however emphasizes that “the real number is certainly higher.”
A report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) mentioned 725 cases of femicide in 2022.
Agnes Tirop, the trigger
The world of athletics in Kenya has been particularly affected by this violence in recent years.
“This senseless violence must stop,” said Romanian athlete of Kenyan origin Joan Chelimo, who co-founded the Tirop’s Angels association, created in Kenya by athletes to fight against violence against women after the death of Agnes Tirop.
The murder in October 2021 of this promising 25-year-old athlete, double world bronze medalist in the 10,000m (2017, 2019) and 4e Tokyo Olympics 5000m, had shaken up the world of athletics in Kenya, where this sport is king.
The young woman was found stabbed to death at her home in Iten, a famous training ground for long-distance running in the Rift Valley.
Her husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich is being prosecuted for murder. He denies the charges. His trial is ongoing.
In April 2022, another Bahraini athlete of Kenyan origin, Damaris Mutua, was found dead in Iten. Her partner, who is on the run, is suspected of having killed her.