Four days after her boyfriend set her on fire, Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei passed away on Thursday in Kenya, according to medics and Ugandan athletics officials.
It was the latest horrific incident of gender-based violence in the East African country, where activists have warned of a femicide epidemic.
“We have learned of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei… following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” the president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, Donald Rukare, said in a post on X.
“This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure.”
Police reported that Dickson Ndiema Marangach, Cheptegei’s partner, doused her with petrol and set her ablaze on Sunday at her home in Endebess, in the western county of Trans-Nzoia.
Just a few weeks had passed since Cheptegei, 33, competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics and finished 44th.
The acting head of the facility where Cheptegei was receiving treatment told reporters on Tuesday that the attack had burnt 80 percent of her body.
“All her organs failed last night,” a medic at the facility, the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), told AFP on Thursday.
A nurse who had been treating Cheptegei said she died at 5:00 am (0200 GMT).
Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described her death as a loss “to the entire region”.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which in recent years has reared its ugly head in elite sporting circles,” he said in a statement.
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