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The man accused of killing Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei by dousing her in gasoline and setting her on fire has also died, according to the hospital where they were both treated.
Cheptegei’s former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema, died on Monday night at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret after being admitted to intensive care following Cheptegei’s attack.
The death was initially reported by the Times and the Star in Kenya, before a hospital spokesperson confirmed the news.
Ndiema died at 7:50pm (4:50pm BST) on Monday, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital spokesman Daniel Lang’at said.
“He died from his injuries and the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters. Local media reported he suffered 30 percent burns when he attacked Cheptegei as she was walking home from church with her children.
World Athletics has pledged to investigate how it can protect female athletes following Cheptegei’s death.
Violence against women is extremely common in Kenya
A national survey in 2022 found that more than a third of women in Kenya had experienced physical violence and Cheptegei’s death followed the murders of two other female runners – Damaris Mutua and Agnes Tirop – at the same running centre in Kenya’s Rift Valley in recent years.
Human rights groups say female athletes in Kenya, where many international runners train in the high-altitude highlands, are at high risk of exploitation and violence from men lured by their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.
“The justice system would have wanted him to stay in prison and reflect on what he had done. This is not good news,” said Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for victims of domestic violence in Kenya’s sporting community.
“The shock of Rebecca’s death is still fresh,” Cheptoo told Reuters.
A report filed by a local administrator said Cheptegei – who finished 14th in last year’s World Marathon Championship and 44th at the Olympics – and his attacker were arguing over land in Trans Nzoia County.
She suffered multiple organ failure after suffering 80 per cent burns in the attack and her funeral, which will include a military burial, will take place in Uganda on Saturday.
“He started pouring gasoline on his back.”
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said she was returning from church with her two children when she was attacked. “He started pouring petrol on the girl as she ran away,” he said. “He poured it on her back before setting it on fire. She shouted to her little sister to get her a blanket, but the man tripped the girl and threatened her with a machete, forcing her to run away.”
Lord Coe, President of World Athletics, said: “Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances. Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had so much to give on the roads, mountains and cross-country trails.”
“I have reached out to our board members in Africa to see how we can help, not only as the governing body of the sport in which Rebecca competed, but also to assess how our safeguarding policies could be enhanced to include abuse outside of sport, and to bring together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to join forces to best protect our female athletes from abuse of all kinds.”
