According to a medical official on Tuesday, the guy who is suspected of dousing Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei in gasoline and lighting her on fire passed away from wounds he received during the deadly incident.
Cheptegei, 33, a competitor in the marathon at the Olympics in Paris, perished four days after the September 1 incident, having had burns covering over 75% of her body.
According to Philip Kirwa, chief executive officer of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, western Kenya, where Dickson Ndiema Marangach was receiving treatment and where Cheptegei also passed away, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, her ex-boyfriend, passed away on Monday at 6:30 p.m. (1530 GMT).
In a statement, Kirwa stated, “He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that ultimately led to his death.”
According to Kirwa, Marangach attacked Cheptegei, causing over 41% of her body to be burned. The incident was reportedly captured on camera after she got home from church with her kids.
Cheptegei is the third elite athlete to die in Kenya since October 2021. She placed 44th in the Paris Marathon. Her passing has raised awareness of domestic abuse in the nation of East Africa, especially among the running community.
“This man killed my daughter, which is why he is dead. Joseph Cheptegei, the father of Cheptegei, told Reuters, “He has died because of his actions.”
Rights groups claim that female athletes in Kenya, where a large number of international runners train in the highlands at high altitudes, are highly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by men who are attracted to their prize money, which is significantly more than what is paid to locals.
“The true course of justice would have been for him to reflect on his actions while incarcerated. Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for victims of domestic abuse in Kenya’s sporting community, stated, “This is not good news at all.
Cheptoo told Reuters, “The shock of Rebecca’s death is still fresh.”
In honor of Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s fiercely competitive athletics scene who was discovered dead in her Iten, Kenya, home in October 2021 from multiple neck stab wounds, Cheptoo co-founded Tirop’s Angels. Tirop’s husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was accused of killing her and entered a not guilty plea. The legal matter is still pending.
According to government data from 2022, about 34 percent of Kenyan girls and women aged 15 to 49 had experienced physical violence; married women were particularly vulnerable.
According to the 2022 poll, 41% of married women reported experiencing violence.
According to a UN Women research from 2023, a woman in the world is killed by a member of her own family every 11 minutes.
Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary-general of the Uganda Olympic Committee, told Reuters, “I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but of course, I would have loved for him to face the law as an example for others so that these attacks on women can stop.”
