Olympian, Rebecca Cheptegei Dies After Being Set On Fire By Boyfriend

Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has lost her life days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns after Sunday’s attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya’s elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports,” Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

Different organizations within the UN have also spoken out on the issue.

“We join the UN Population Fund and UN Women in strongly condemning [Cheptegei’s} violent murder,” spokesperson for the UN secretary-general Stephane Dujarric is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital where she had been treated, Mr Cheptegei asked the Kenyan government to ensure justice was done after the death of his daughter.

“We have lost our breadwinner,” he added and wondered how her two young children would “proceed with their education”.

Dr Kimani Mbugua, a consultant at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, told local media that the staff did all they could for her but the athlete “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [02:30 GMT]”.

Kirwa, who often trained with Cheptegei and had visited her in hospital, told the BBC she “was a very affable person. [She] helped us all even financially and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me”.

Uganda’s athletic federation said in a post “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.“

Her demise comes after the killings of fellow East African athletes Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Damaris Mutua the following year, with their partners identified as the main suspects in both cases by the authorities.

Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while a hunt for Mutua’s boyfriend continues.

“Today has been a sad moment for me. It has been a sad moment for athletes because it reminded us [of] the day that Agnes was murdered,” Kenyan athlete Joan Chelimo told the BBC.

She is involved in Tirop’s Angels, an organization she said was set up as a “wake-up call” after Tirop’s murder to address gender-based violence.

“We say we need to unite together as athletes and just try to raise awareness, create a place where women can just come and speak up. But it is still on the rise.”

Cheptegei’s friend Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, a Kenyan athlete who was with her in Paris, echoed these feelings.

“I can say we are still in shock, and we are in pain, especially as athletes, and this thing happening in Kenya,” she told the Reuters news agency. “We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, now it has come to Rebecca, so we are not happy.’’