Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei. PHOTO/FILE/HANDOUT
The news of a Ugandan long-distance athlete being hospitalised in Kenya after being set on fire by her partner spread like a wildfire on Monday.
Many may not have even heard of Rebecca Cheptegei who was part of the 25-member team at the recently concluded Paris 2024 Olympic Games prior to this week.
Cheptegei had recently returned to Kenya following the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she represented Uganda in the marathon and finished 48th.
She also took part in the 2021 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand held in 2022, winning gold in the Up and downhill race.
Cheptegei suffered burns to most of her body when her partner poured petrol on her and set her ablaze, police reported late on Monday.
The attack took place on Sunday afternoon at Cheptegei’s home in Kenya’s western Trans Nzoia County.
The 33-year-old athlete is now in critical condition in a hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.
Her Kenyan partner and alleged assailant, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was also injured by the flames, according to police, who said he broke into Cheptegei’s home while she was at church.
It’s common for many Ugandan and other long-distance athletes globally to take the trek from the biggest capitals of the world to Kenya to train and learn from the many success stories of the East African country.
The attack by her Kenyan partner Ndiema is being treated as an attempted murder case. The two are admitted at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in Uasin Gishu County.
Dr Josephat Kirema, the Head of Department at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), described her condition as “very critical” during the initial phase of treatment.
“We received a high-profile patient. I got to learn that she is an athlete from Uganda by the name Rebecca. She sustained severe burns. The burns ate 80 percent of the whole body. She is very critical and on a mechanical ventilator. She is not awake,” Dr Kirema said.
“The burns are extensive and painful. We are trying to support her. When the skin is burnt, you lose a lot of fluid. The first 48-72 hours are critical as the body needs food.
“Everything we are doing is in trying to ensure that she does not go into multiple organ failure,” he explained.
His colleague, Dr Owen Menach highlighted the areas most affected by the arson attack. “Some wounds are deep, especially at the back. You know, the skin is a primary defence and once breached, there is trouble,” he said.
“So, we are giving antibiotics here to prevent infections. At the hospital, we have adequate supplies, and all the consultants are here along with nurses to get her to pull. The key thing is to protect her body from multiple organ failure,” Dr Menach added.
According to the police report, Cheptegei and Ndiema were a couple, and the case is being treated as one of attempted murder.
“The two persons were indeed a couple, who constantly had family wrangles where they contested over a plot and a house. The husband is believed to have sneaked into the compound yesterday at around 1400 hours while the wife and the children were at the church.
“Upon returning, Dickson who had procured petrol began pouring on Rebecca before he set her a blaze. Fire erupted on her and the same fire caught Dickson when he lit the matchstick causing him to burn as well.
“The two were rescued by neighbours who put out the fire and rushed them to hospital at Kitale County referral hospital where they have been admitted with multiple burns.
“At the scene, we found a 5-litre yellow jerry can, a bag and a black marvin believed to be for Dickson and a burnt mobile phone believed to be for Rebecca was found, DCI (Directorate of Criminal Intelligence) Trans Nzoia West Sub County investigating.
“The lady seems to be of dual citizenship. She has represented Uganda on several occasions and is a renowned athlete there.”
Cheptegei’s parents travelled to Kenya from Uganda and are camping at the hospital. The father, Joseph Cheptegei, said his daughter bought a home and land in the area to take advantage of its training facilities.
“Rebecca has been training in Kenya. She has bought land. She is the family breadwinner who takes care of her siblings and her two children,” Joseph Cheptegei narrated.
“On Sunday, they woke up and went to church. Her partner, note that he is not the father of her two children, hid in the poultry house.
“She had noises in the poultry house and went to check. He (Ndiema) immediately poured petrol on her and then lit a matchstick. He also had a panga. When he saw her burning, he ran and didn’t come back. While I am grateful to the doctors, we demand justice,” Joseph Cheptegei said.
What could have provoked such a gruesome attack? “They have been staying together for some time now. He wants to take the land, but my girl refused.
“They went to Police on Friday (DCI) and were told to return on Monday,” a clearly distressed father said.
Cheptegei is not the first high-profile athlete to make headlines as the victim of domestic assault in Kenya. The most prominent case is that of Agnes Tirop.
In 2021, record-breaking Kenyan runner Tirop was found stabbed to death in her home. Tirop’s estranged husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, who denies involvement, is now being tried for her murder.
Tirop’s family and fellow Kenyan athletes launched a foundation in her honour to combat gender-based violence – Tirop’s Angels – which recently opened a centre in Kenya’s western town of Iten.
In 2023, Ugandan Olympic runner and steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat was found dead with stab wounds. His body was discovered in a car on the outskirts of Eldoret.
Earlier in 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead, with a post-mortem examination revealing that she had been strangled.
In October 2021, the night before Tirop’s death, a twenty-seven-year-old runner named Edith Muthoni, who lived east of Nairobi, was killed; her throat was slit with a machete.
In 2014, Lucy Kabuu, another runner, was sued by her ex-husband for control of half of her properties. In the Daily Nation, Kabuu argued that although some of the properties are in his name, she bought them all with her winnings; she has also accused him of stealing from her bank accounts and assaulting her.
(Kabuu’s ex-husband has denied the allegations, according to the Daily Nation, and argued that he contributed to the acquisition and development of several pieces of land. The case is ongoing.)
This past February, the Olympic gold medallist Vivian Cheruiyot told another Kenyan paper, the Standard, that her husband, Moses Kiplagat, had taken control of her properties, including gas stations and farmland, and that, when she objected, he abused her physically and psychologically. (Kiplagat has denied the allegations, the Standard reported and claimed that Cheruiyot was facing undisclosed social challenges.)
Family pressures and rivalries have been quoted as central to the raging fire that has cost many young souls their lives. Cases of control by partners have also been found.
Martha Akello, a runner, who lived next door to the Tirops in Iten, was disturbed by Rotich’s controlling behavior.
“We were neighbors, but he did not permit her to mingle with the other ladies,” she said in a previous interview with the New Yorker magazine.
“He had to accompany her to training. It’s like she was living in prison.”
There are also cases of insecurity as most of these husbands entirely depend on their talented partners for a livelihood.
“The men are never comfortable with their ‘wives’ getting pregnant at the ‘wrong time’ as that would apply a slowdown in incomes,” David Kwalimwa, a Kenyan journalist who has previously worked with Daily Nation, said.
“There is illiteracy, jealousy and fights over money or wealth,” he added.
Uganda’s State minister for Sports Peter Ogwang recently asked the parents of the different athletes and the people of Sebei to show more support rather than heap unnecessary pressure on them.
He said: “I want to visit the parents of all these athletes. Why? Government is starting to invest in our children, and I want to appeal to the parents to allow them to turn into professional sportsmen and women. Please, do not burden them with other things.”
“I have heard that the people of Sebei are putting these athletes under pressure and making them community leaders.”
The minister made these revelations during the dinner hosted at Protea Hotel to welcome back Olympians who represented Uganda at the Olympics in Paris.
Part of that team was Rebecca Cheptegei and two-time Olympic medalist Peruth Chemutai.
In the audience was Chemutai’s father-in-law. The athlete is said to have issues with her family. Allegations have been traded that Chemutai, on the advice of her husband, no longer visits her family.
Ogwang went on to share that Chemutai had been barred from training at the National High-Altitude Centre in Teryet prior to the Olympics by her husband.
“I hear they are asking for clearance for these athletes, like Peruth, to use Teryet. Clearance from who? Why do you want them to continue running from the road? That should be the decision of the coach,” Ogwang said.
Justine Yapsoyekwo, the officer in charge of Teryet, was present and looked shocked, maybe even ashamed, about the accusations.
