The person who attacked Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died from accidents sustained when he poured petrol over the Olympic athlete, the Kenyan sanatorium treating him stated.
Police stated that Dickson Ndiema Marangach assaulted Cheptegei in her house in western Kenya on September 1. The mum of 2 sustained 80 p.c burns and died final week.
Throughout the assault, Marangach additionally incurred 30 p.c burns and used to be being handled within the in depth care unit on the Moi Educating and Referral Health facility (MTRH) in Kenya’s Rift Valley town of Eldoret.
Marangach died at 7:50pm native time (16:50 GMT) on Monday, Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson on the sanatorium stated.
“He died from his accidents, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at informed the Reuters information company.
Police in Kenya stated Marangach snuck into her house in Endebess, close to the border with Uganda, whilst she used to be at church together with her kids elderly 9 and 11.
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, informed journalists the dispute with Marangach have been over the valuables the place she lived together with her sister and daughters. He informed Kenyan media final week that Marangach had purchased 5 litres (1.3 gallons) of petrol after which concealed out in a hen coop ahead of the assault.
“He poured the petrol and lit her on fireplace. When she referred to as her sister to assist, he threatened her with a machete and she or he ran away.”
The police stated the couple had “continuously had circle of relatives wrangles”.
The United Countries condemned her “violent homicide”, with Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN leader Antonio Guterres, pronouncing: “Gender-based violence is likely one of the maximum prevalent human rights violations on the planet, and must be handled as such.”
We strongly condemn the homicide of Rebecca Cheptegei, the 3rd elite runner to be murdered in Kenya. All suspects had been intimate companions of the athletes.
No impunity for perpetrators.
The rage of #femicide will have to be stopped.
Observation via @unwomenafrica %.twitter.com/KLYAVcYq0d
— UN Ladies (@UN_Women) September 5, 2024
Tributes pour in as Cheptegei honoured in Paris
Cheptegei, who completed forty fourth in Paris, is the 3rd elite sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Her loss of life has put the highlight on home violence within the East African nation, in particular inside its working group.
She is because of be buried on September 14 close to her circle of relatives house in jap Uganda, consistent with the rustic’s Olympic Committee.
On Sunday, the Paralympic Video games in Paris paid tribute to her when an image of Cheptegei seemed on an enormous display after the marathon occasions at the final day of the video games. The tribute used to be met with applause from the spectators on the Esplanade des Invalides.
Town of Paris stated it might honour Cheptegei via naming a sports activities venue after her.
Tributes have poured in for the runner, who used to be Uganda’s ladies’s marathon document holder and likewise served within the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, protecting the rank of sergeant.
“Our game has misplaced a skilled athlete in probably the most tragic and unthinkable cases,” Global Athletics President Sebastian Coe stated.
“Rebecca used to be a shockingly flexible runner who nonetheless had so much left to provide at the roads, mountains and cross-country trails.”
Coe stated he used to be in discussions with contributors of Global Athletics’ governing council “to evaluate how our safeguarding insurance policies may well be enhanced to incorporate abuse outdoor of the game, and bringing in combination stakeholders from all spaces of athletics to mix forces to offer protection to our feminine athletes to the most efficient of our talents from abuse of a wide variety”.
Our game has misplaced a skilled athlete in probably the most tragic and unthinkable cases.
Rebecca used to be a shockingly flexible runner who nonetheless had so much left to provide at the roads, mountains and move nation trails.
I’ve been involved with our Council Contributors in Africa to peer…
— Seb Coe (@sebcoe) September 5, 2024
Cheptegei’s loss of life highlights gender-based violence in Kenya
Rights teams say feminine athletes in Kenya, the place many world runners teach within the high-altitude highlands, are at a excessive possibility of exploitation and violence by the hands of guys interested in their prize cash, which a ways exceeds native earning.
“Justice truly would were for him to take a seat in prison and take into consideration what he had performed. This isn’t certain information in any respect,” stated Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a fortify staff for survivors of home violence in Kenya’s athletic group.
“The surprise of Rebecca’s loss of life remains to be contemporary,” Cheptoo informed Reuters.
Cheptoo co-founded Tirop’s Angels in reminiscence of Agnes Tirop, a emerging determine in Kenya’s extremely aggressive athletics scene, who used to be discovered useless in her house within the the city of Iten in October 2021 with more than one stab wounds to the neck.
Ibrahim Rotich, Tirop’s husband, used to be charged together with her homicide and has pleaded no longer in charge. The case is constant.
No less than two different athletes have died by the hands in their companions since 2021.
All over Kenya, 41 p.c of ladies who’ve been married have skilled bodily violence, when put next with 20 in step with cent of those that have no longer been married.
No less than 500 girls and women were murdered in Kenya since 2016, consistent with the UN.
Figures from UN Ladies Africa display that globally, there have been 89,000 stories of girls and women murdered in 2022, the absolute best quantity recorded in two decades. Greater than part of the girls and women had been killed via intimate companions or different members of the family.
Kenya’s sports activities minister Kipchumba Murkomen stated the Olympian’s loss of life used to be a “stark reminder” that extra will have to be performed to battle gender-based violence.
