Rebecca Cheptegei’s attacker has died from burns sustained when he set fire to the Ugandan marathon runner, who died on Thursday, a hospital in western Kenya where he was being treated told AFP on Tuesday.
2 min
Presented by the Kenyan police as the athlete’s companion, Dickson Ndiema Marangach had suffered 30% burns during this deadly attackwhich has become an emblematic case of violence against women.
” It is true that we lost Dickson Ndiema last night around 8:00 p.m. ” (Monday 18:00 GMT), a communications manager at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the town of Eldoret told AFP on Tuesday morning.
On September 1, the man doused Rebecca Cheptegei with gasoline and set her ablaze as she was returning from church with her children to her home in Endebess, western Kenya. The 33-year-old died on Thursday with more than 80 percent burns. She will be buried on Saturday in her family’s village in eastern Uganda. According to Rebecca Cheptegei’s father, the attack stemmed from a dispute over land his daughter had purchased to build her house.
This murder, a few weeks after his participation in the marathon of the Paris Olympic Games (44th), has aroused worldwide emotion and indignation.
The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, notably said: firmly “condemned this” violent murder “, ” which illustrates a broader problem that is too often ignored “, that of violence against women.
The city of Paris has announced that it will name a sports venue after him.
Her death adds to those of many victims of gender-based violence in Kenya, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recorded 725 women killed in gender-related killings in 2022.
The world of athletics has been struck by this type of murder three times in three years.
In October 2021, the promising athlete Agnes Tirop (25 years old), double world bronze medalist in the 10,000m (2017, 2019) and 4th in the Tokyo Olympics in the 5,000m, was found stabbed to death at her home in Iten, a famous training ground for long-distance running in the Rift Valley.
Her husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich is being prosecuted for murder. He denies the charges. His trial is ongoing.
In April 2022, another Bahraini athlete of Kenyan origin, Damaris Mutuawas found dead in Iten. Her companion, who fled, is suspected of having killed her.