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Sports|Rebecca Cheptegei, Olympic Runner From Uganda, Dies After Gasoline Attack
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/sports/rebecca-cheptegei-dead-uganda-olympic-athlete.html
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The athlete, who was set on fire in Kenya by a man with whom she was in a relationship, competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics this summer.
Sept. 5, 2024Updated 10:35 a.m. ET
Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan long-distance runner who competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics before she was severely burned in a gasoline attack this week, died Thursday in Kenya. She was 33.
Ms. Cheptegei died in an intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the city of Eldoret, said Dr. Owen Menach, who is on staff at the hospital. The cause was multiple organ failure, he said in a phone interview.
The Kenyan police had said that a man with whom she was in a relationship, Dickson Ndiema, set her on fire with gasoline Sunday afternoon.
Her kidneys had failed at the time of her hospitalization after she sustained burns to 80 percent of her body, Dr. Menach said. She also sustained inhalation burns, according to Dr. Kimani Mbugua, another hospital official, and had been in a critical condition after the attack.
Jeremiah Kosiom, the police commander for the Trans Nzoia County Police, said that they planned to charge Mr. Ndiema with murder as soon as he recuperated from injuries he sustained in the attack. Mr. Ndiema suffered burns to 30 percent of his body and was being treated at same hospital, Mr. Kosiom said.
The death of Ms. Cheptegei, a professional runner who finished 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, prompted outcry and horror from women’s rights campaigns, who have long raised the alarm about a disturbing upsurge in the killings of women in Kenya and other African nations. At least 500 women in Kenya have been victims of femicide — a term used for the killing of women and girls — between 2016 and 2023, according to a report from Africa Data Hub, a group collating cases from Kenyan news media.
