The remains of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who di3d after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya, was received Friday by relatives and anti-femicide activists ahead of her burial the following day.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists who marched to the morgue of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, western Kenya, on Friday, chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to be kill3d by her spouse in Kenya in recent years, in yet another instance of gender-based vi0lence.
Viola Cheptoo, the creator of Tirop Angels, a group created in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, stated stakeholders must ensure this is the final de@th of an athlete due to gender-based vi0lence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a sad atmosphere at the morgue as athletes and family members examined Cheptegei’s body, which had incurred 80% b_rns after being doused with gasoline by her companion Dickson Ndiema.
Ndiema di3d after sustaining 30% b_rns to his body.
According to a report submitted by the local chief, Ndiema and Cheptegei argued over a plot of land that the sportsman purchased in Kenya.
Cheptegei had raced in the women’s marathon in the Paris Olympics less than a month before the att@ck.
She finished in 44th position. Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief halt at their house in the Endebess area before heading to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
