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Rabat – A marathon athlete who competed at the Paris Olympics was doused in petrol and set alight by her boyfriend at her home in Kenya, police said.
Rebecca Cheptegei is in a critical condition with burns to 75 percent of her body. She is the latest victim of a series of attacks on East Africa’s fastest women by their partners.
According to police reports, Cheptegei had a long-running feud with Dickson Ndiema Marangach over land and a house they shared in Trans-Nzoia county, where Kenya’s best training centers are headquartered. On Sunday when the 33-year-old runner came home from the church with her two children, she found her boyfriend waiting for them.
“Upon returning, Dickson, who had procured petrol, began pouring it on Rebecca before he set her ablaze. The suspect was also caught by the fire and sustained serious burns,” said Trans-Nzoia county police commander.
“Her condition looks serious with facial burns and bandages,” said a staff member at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, where the athlete and her assailant are both being treated.
The attack highlights the rise of domestic violence in Kenya where, according to government data, almost half of women say they have been beaten or abused by their partners. It also underscores the dark side of Kenya’s running industry, which has produced a generation of fast and ambitious women who have become targets for exploitation.
In 2022, a month after breaking the women’s ten-kilometer record, Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death in Iten. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, is on trial for murder.
Later in the same year, Lucy Njeri, another top runner, was abducted in the capital Nairobi. The men who kidnapped her claimed to have been hired by her husband to kill her.
In WhatsApp messages, her husband appeared to admit to hiring the criminals but claims they concocted the murder plot themselves.
