Ex-boyfriend who set fire to Ugandan athlete dies

The former boyfriend of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after he set her on fire, has himself died from burns sustained in the attack, a Kenyan hospital official has said.

Dickson Ndiema ambushed the marathon runner as she returned home from church more than a week ago, before dousing her with petrol and setting her ablaze.

Local administrators said the two had been in conflict over a small piece of land in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained.

Ndiema died on Monday night at the intensive care unit where he had been admitted with more than 30% burns.

“It’s true he has died from the [burn] injuries,” Dr Owen Menach from Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital told the BBC.

Neighbours told the BBC that they heard screams before Cheptegei came running towards them shouting for help.

Ndiema was to face charges as police said they were treating Cheptegei’s death as murder, with the former boyfriend named as the main suspect.

Both of them were admitted to Moi Hospital in Eldoret before their deaths.

The 33-year-old athlete was the third athlete to be killed in Kenya in the last three years, where intimate partners were named as the main suspects by police.

The Olympian was born on the Kenyan side of the Kenya-Uganda border, but chose to cross over and represent Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she did not get a breakthrough in Kenya.

When she started getting into athletics, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 and rose to sergeant rank.

Her career included competing in this year’s Paris Olympics. Although she came 44th in the marathon, people in her home area called her “champion”.

Cheptegei is set to be buried on Saturday at her ancestral home in Bukwo, Uganda.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.