The mother of murdered Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei broke down in tears by her daughter’s coffin as family members gathered in Kenya today to mourn and pay their respects.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Cheptegei, 33, suffered multiple organ failure last week and tragically passed away in a hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, days after sustaining 80% burns when ex-boyfriend Dickson Ndiema threw petrol on her and set her alight amid a bitter argument.
The mother-of-two’s funeral is planned for Saturday in Bukwo, home to her family in Uganda, but relatives paid their respects in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, near where she lived, on Friday.
A hearse carried the long-distance runner’s body through the town in western Kenya as scores of activists joined the procession, calling for an end to gendered violence. Some carried white or red roses, and wore T-shirts with an image of Cheptegei.
Agnes Cheptegei, her mother, was joined by family members in mourning as the coffin paused at the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital funeral home in Eldoret. Ms Cheptegei broke down in tears and was assisted as the family gathered near the hospital.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
‘We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,’ a visibly distraught Joseph said on Friday.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Tony Sabila, Cheptegei’s uncle, described her as ‘a pillar to the family’ and expressed his sadness over the loss.
Cheptegei was attacked outside her house in Endebass in Kenya on September 1.
‘Her attacker was a friend they met in Kenya and my daughter trusted him,’ her father said last week.
‘They fell out recently but the suspect sneaked into her compound on Sunday afternoon, armed with five litres of petrol and hid in a poultry house.’
Local media reported that her young daughters and teenage sister witnessed the brutal assault.
Cheptegei has two children, aged nine and 11, who are fathered by a different man living in Uganda.
One of Cheptegei’s daughters is said to have witnessed the assault at her mother’s home. She told Kenya’s The Standard: ‘He kicked me while I tried to run to the rescue of my mother.’
The pair were heard by neighbours arguing loudly at the house where the athlete had recently moved to be closer to better Kenyan training facilities.
Ndiema is said to have snapped and doused her with petrol from a jerry can before setting her alight.
Horrifically, neighbours who heard the commotion came running to discover the Olympian engulfed in flames and tried to extinguish them, to no avail.
Agnes Barabara, who lives adjacent to Cheptegei’s home, told the BBC: ‘When I came out, I saw Rebecca running towards my house on fire, shouting: “help me”.
‘As I went to look for water and started calling out for help, her assailant appeared again and doused more petrol on her.’
Barabara added she could not eat for days after witnessing the incident from just metres away, saying solemnly she had never seen anyone ‘burned alive’.
The athlete was rushed to the intensive care unit at Eldoret’s Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the wake of the attack, with some 80% of her body badly burned.
She was stabilised and there were hopes she could survive the ordeal early last week, but the facility’s acting director Dr Owen Menach confirmed Cheptegei died on Wednesday night after all her organs began to fail one after the other.
Cheptegei’s funeral is to be held on September 14, organisers said Sunday.
Cheptegei’s attacker, 32-year-old Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was also severely burned and died in hospital on Monday.
As Rebecca Cheptegei’s body passed through the town of Eldoret, scores of activists lined the road with others walking alongside the hearse.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
‘We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,’ she said.
Cheptegei is the third athlete to have died in Kenya as a result of gender-based violence since 2021, provoking a global outpouring of tributes and rage.
At a rally the same day, many wore white T-shirts with an image of Cheptegei and carried white or red roses.
Others had signs reading ‘Being a woman should not be a death sentence’ and ‘A house where a woman is not safe is not a home’.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, told journalists last week he has lost a daughter who was ‘very supportive’ and hopes to get justice.
‘As it is now, the criminal who harmed my daughter is a murderer and I am yet to see what the security officials are doing,’ he said, before the hospital reported Ndiema’s death.
Speaking earlier this week from hospital alongside his other daughter Evalyne Chelagat, Mr Cheptegei claimed that his daughter and Ndiema were fighting over her land at Endebes in Trans Nzoia shortly before the alleged attack occurred.
‘They were just friends and I wonder why he wanted to take away things belonging to my daughter,’ Cheptegei Snr told The Star.
Just hours before the Sunday ordeal, they were both reportedly appearing before the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kitale over a land tussle.
‘I wish to state that my wounded daughter is married and her husband is in Uganda,’ Joseph told The Standard.
A 2023 report by Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics found 34 percent of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
Cheptegei was born in Kenya close to the border with Uganda, but crossed over to represent the latter as her athletic career began to pick up speed.
A former sergeant in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Cheptegei displayed a talent for endurance running and resolved to compete in the marathon and other long distance events at the highest level.
In 2022, she won gold in the up and downhill mountain race at the inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand.
Cheptegei also won the Padova marathon in Italy earlier that year, before finishing second in the Abu Dhabi marathon in 2hr 22min 47sec – the second fastest time by a female Ugandan….CLICK HERE FOR MORE ARTICLE>>>
