On the morning of Sunday Sept. 1, Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei was preparing to go to church from her home in the highlands of western Kenya. Her ex-boyfriend called a friend of his to ask if he could borrow a lighter.
He said he had “an emergency” and was heading out of town, the friend, retired runner Dennis Masai Chepkongin, told Reuters at his home in the Mount Elgon region, where Cheptegei lived.
“He became very secretive when I asked him why,” Chepkongin said, adding that he declined the request.
Hours later Cheptegei’s former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, doused the runner in petrol and set her on fire, according to her family and police.
Both would die in hospital of their burns. Marangach could not be reached for comment before his death, and Reuters was unable independently to verify the details of what happened that day.
A police official, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed Marangach had been under investigation for murder when he died.
The land around Cheptegei’s home in the quiet village of Kinyoro bore witness to a grisly death. The ground was charred and moist with gasoline when reporters visited last weekend. Her 17-year-old sister, Dorcas, who was attacked with a machete, sat weeping quietly, her body doubled over, or stared dumbly into space.
Cheptegei’s killing so soon after the athlete had competed for Uganda in the Paris Olympics shocked the world. But it was no surprise to Cheptegei or her family, her parents told Reuters.
Their story sheds light on the dark side of success for female athletes in Kenya’s patriarchal society. Elite runners can earn more money in a single marathon than many Kenyans do in a year. They say their success frequently makes them targets for predatory men who try to manipulate them and wrest control of their assets.
Cheptegei was the third female runner to be killed in Kenya since 2021, allegedly by romantic partners. Her funeral took place on Saturday in neighbouring Uganda’s Bukwo district with full military honours, as the athlete was a member of the Ugandan defence forces.
Cheptegei had tried to protect herself.
A 33-year-old single mother of two born in Uganda, she had walked out of the relationship with Marangach, managed her own money and was breadwinner for an extended family including her parents, a dozen siblings and her two daughters, aged 9 and 11, family members said.
She had gone to police at least three times this year to report threats and physical abuse by Marangach, her father, Joseph, said.
He shared with Reuters police slips confirming complaints she filed in February and May, in Kinyoro and the nearby town of Kitale.
“This man is going to kill my child,” Joseph said he told officers in February, after Marangach allegedly beat her up and broke her phone.
He said the police had told Marangach to stay away from Cheptegei’s home, but he didn’t listen. “So we went back to the police and they were not keen to do anything else. My daughter died because the police failed.”
Neither the local nor the national police responded to a request for comment on that point. Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura did not respond to Reuters’ questions.
Cheptegei’s killing left other female runners despairing at what they called the continuing inaction of the authorities and Athletics Kenya, the national governing body for the sport.
“No one is held accountable,” said Joan Chelimo, who co-founded Tirop’s Angels, a non-profit established to support domestic violence victims after Kenyan long-distance runner Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death in 2021.
Tirop’s husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with her murder. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail last year. His case is ongoing and his lawyer declined to comment.
Kenyan-Bahraini runner Damaris Mutua was also killed in 2022. Her Ethiopian boyfriend was named as a suspect. The Kenyan police say he fled Kenya.
Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has condemned the attack on Cheptegei and promised action.
An adviser to President William Ruto said authorities were working to prevent gender-based violence in sports. But activists say its efforts are falling short.
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Violence against women is a major problem in Kenya. One in three adolescent girls and women have been victims, according to government data from 2022.
Femicide Count Kenya, an NGO that uses media reports to document intentional killings with a gender-related motivation, has recorded 157 killings of women so far in 2024 — the most in a year since it began collecting data in 2019.
“More women are facing violence but they are not getting any help from police,” said Audrey Mugeni, the group’s co-founder.
