A Ugandan athlete living in Kenya was attacked and set on fire by her boyfriend and is receiving treatment for burns on 75% of her body, police said.
Rebecca Cheptegei, a distance runner who finished at the 44th position at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was attacked in her house in the western Trans Nzoia County.
Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said Monday that Cheptegei’s boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema, bought a jerrican of petrol, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement Sunday. Ndiema also sustained burn wounds, and the two are receiving specialized treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret city.
Cheptegei’s parents said their daughter bought land in Trans Nzoia to be near the county’s many athletic training centers.
A report filed by the local chief states the couple was heard fighting over the land where the house was built before the fire started.
In 2023, Ugandan Olympic runner and steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat was found dead with stab wounds. In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead. A postmortem report said she was strangled.
Wow! How is this not bigger news? This is bonkers!
She is now deceased:
Ugandan Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei has succumbed to horrendous injuries sustained after she was doused in petrol and set alight in her home.
Cheptegei, 33, suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body in Sunday’s brutal attack that was allegedly carried out by her ex-boyfriend, according to medical officials.
She was rushed to the intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, in the hopes doctors could stabilise her.
But the facility’s acting director Dr Owen Menach this morning confirmed Cheptegei died late last night.
‘Unfortunately, we lost her after all her organs failed,’ Menach told Kenyan press.