The Attacker of Ugandan Athlete Cheptegei Dies in a Hospital

The Kenyan hospital caring for the man who attacked Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei said on Tuesday that the man had passed away from wounds he had received when he poured gasoline over the Olympian.

According to police, on September 1, Dickson Ndiema Marangach attacked Cheptegei at her western Kenyan house. The mother-of-two passed away last week after sustaining 80% burns.

Marangach was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret after suffering 30% burns during the attack.

An official from the hospital’s communications department told AFP, “It’s true we lost Dickson Ndiema last night at about 8:00 pm,” but they asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The official said that his family had been notified and that a “comprehensive statement” would be made available at a later time.

The assault on 33-year-old Cheptegei has been met with grief and indignation as another horrifying instance of gender-based violence in the nation of East Africa.

Since 2021, at least two more athletes have perished at the hands of their partners.

The Olympic Committee of Uganda has scheduled Cheptegei’s funeral for September 14 close to her family’s home in the east of the country.

Just a few weeks had passed since Cheptegei made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon at the Paris Games, when she placed 44th. The incident was reportedly observed by her daughters, according to the local media.

According to the police, Marangach broke into her Endebess, close to the Ugandan border, home when she and her kids were attending church.

Reporters were informed by her father, Joseph Cheptegei, that the property on which Marangach, her sister, and their daughters resided was the source of their disagreement.

He revealed to Kenyan media last week that prior to the attack, Marangach had purchased five liters of gasoline and hidden out in a chicken coop.

He doused her in gasoline and set her ablaze. He threatened her with a machete when she called her sister for assistance, and she fled.

The pair “constantly had family wrangles,” according to the police.

According to the most recent UN statistics, Kenya has a high rate of violence against women, with 725 occurrences of femicide reported in 2022 alone.

According to a 2023 National Bureau of Statistics data from Kenya, 34% of women reported having been physically abused since they were 15 years old.

Cheptegei’s passing comes after that of Kenyan record-breaker Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Mutua in 2022.

Their ex-partners were held accountable for their deaths in both situations.

On trial is Tirop’s estranged partner, who claims not to have killed her.