Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei’s attacker dies in hospital

Nairobi: The man who attacked Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died from injuries sustained when he poured petrol over the Olympic athlete, the Kenyan hospital treating him said Tuesday.

Police said that Dickson Ndiema Marangach assaulted Cheptegei in her home in western Kenya on September 1. The mother-of-two sustained 80 per cent burns and died last week.

In the course of the attack Marangach also incurred 30 per cent burns and was being treated in the intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret.

“It’s true we lost Dickson Ndiema last night at about 8pm,” an official at the hospital’s communications department told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the press.

His family had been informed, the official said, adding that a “comprehensive statement” would be released later.

The attack on the 33-year-old Cheptegei has been greeted with sorrow and anger as yet another horrific example of gender-based violence in the East African country.

At least two other athletes have lost their lives at the hands of their partners since 2021.

Cheptegei is due to be buried on September 14 near her family home in eastern Uganda, according to the country’s Olympic Committee.

The attack, which local media said was witnessed by Cheptegei’s daughters, came just weeks after she made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon at the Paris Games, where she finished 44th.

Dispute over property

Police said Marangach snuck into her home in Endebess, near the border with Uganda, while she was at church with her children.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told reporters the dispute with Marangach had been over the property where she lived with her sister and daughters.

He told Kenyan media last week that Marangach had bought five litres of petrol then hid out in a chicken coop before the attack.

“He poured the petrol and lit her on fire. When she called her sister to help, he threatened her with a machete and she ran away.”

The police said the couple had “constantly had family wrangles”.

Violence against women is widespread in Kenya, which saw 725 femicide cases in 2022 alone, according to the latest UN figures.

A 2023 report by Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics found 34 per cent of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

Cheptegei’s death follows that of record-breaking Kenyan runner Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Kenyan-born Bahrain athlete Damaris Mutua the following year.

In both cases, their ex-partners were implicated in their deaths.

Tirop’s estranged partner, who denies murdering her, is on trial.