A decorated Olympian revered by her home country is now fighting for her life after a horrific domestic attack.
According to sports media outlet OutKick, Rebecca Cheptegei, an Olympic marathon runner who competed for Uganda in Paris, was reportedly attacked and then set on fire by her boyfriend during an argument.
The 33-year-old made her Olympic debut during last month’s marathon in the Summer Games where she finished 44th.
Cheptegei, who lives in Kenya, was attacked in her house in the western Trans Nzoia County in East Africa. Police Commander Jeremiah Ole Kosiom said on Monday that Cheptegei’s boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema, bought a jerrican of petrol, poured it on her and set her on fire. She was receiving treatment for burns on 75% of her body, police said, with Ndiema also sustaining burn wounds in the incident.
We regret to announce that our athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who competed at the Olympics has suffered severe injuries and is hospitalized at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. This follows an incident involving her Kenyan boyfriend pouring petrol and setting fire on her pic.twitter.com/rgnWvgTpkb
— Uganda Athletics Federation-UAF (@UgaAthletics2) September 3, 2024
The police report noted that the couple had been overheard fighting over land where the house they were in was built, according to the BBC.
“The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her,” Koisom told the BBC.
Unfortunately, this brazen, horrific attack is just the latest incident of gender-based violence in Kenya.
Per the OutKick report, a recent report by the Kenyan Bureau of National Statistics published in January 2023 found that 34 percent of women in the country have experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
It said women who had “been married are much more likely to have experienced violence”, with 41 percent of such women reporting incidents compared to 20 percent of unmarried women.
Kenyan-born athlete Damaris Mutua was found dead in Iten, a world-famous running hub in the Rift Valley in the western part of the country.