Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the former partner of the Uganda runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who had been accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, died on Monday from burns sustained during the attack.
Cheptegei, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7.50pm local time on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died. “He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters.
Cheptegei, who finished 44th in Paris, is the third elite sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Her death has put the spotlight on domestic violence in the country, particularly within its running community. Rights groups say female athletes in Kenya are at a high risk of exploitation and violence at the hands of men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.
“Justice really would have been for him to sit in jail and think about what he had done. This is not positive news whatsoever,” said Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for survivors of domestic violence in Kenya’s athletic community. “The shock of Rebecca’s death is still fresh.”
Nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 years have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022, with married women at particular risk. The survey found that 41% of married women had faced violence.
Globally, a woman is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes, according to a 2023 UN Women study. “I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but of course I would have loved for him to face the law as an example for others so that these attacks on women can stop,” said Beatrice Ayikoru, the secretary-general of the Uganda Olympic Committee.
Source: theguardian.com
