Horrific death of Uganda Olympic runner’s is the latest in violence against Kenya female athletes…
The tragic death of Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was doused in gasoline and set ablaze by her lover, has once again highlighted Kenya’s horrible history of domestic abuse against female athletes. Her murder comes in the wake of at least two other well-known female runners who have perished in domestic abuse incidents within the past three years in an area that has given birth to numerous Olympic and world champions.
Ugandan native Cheptegei passed away on Thursday at the age of 33. During a Sunday argument, Cheptegei’s boyfriend, according to the police, poured gasoline over her and lit her on fire. She passed away four days later at an Eldoret hospital after sustaining 80% burns to her body.
The boyfriend was also burned in the attack and is being treated at the same hospital. No criminal charges have yet been announced against him.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month ago, finishing in 44th place. She lived in western Kenya’s famous high-altitude training region that draws the best distance runners from across the world and had recently built a house there to be close to the training centers.
The brutal slaying of Kenyan star runner Tirop in the same region in 2021 led to an outpouring of anger from fellow athletes and prompted the East African country’s athletics authorities to acknowledge the scourge of domestic abuse as a major problem.
Tirop was one of Kenya’s brightest talents when she was stabbed to death at her home in Iten, the other world-renowned distance-running training town in Kenya, alongside Eldoret. Her husband, who was on the run, was arrested days after the killing and has been charged with murder. His court case is still underway
Like Cheptegei, the 25-year-old Tirop had just competed at an Olympics – the 2021 Tokyo Games – and had set a new world record in the 10-kilometer road race in another competition a month before she was killed. Her body was found with stab wounds to the stomach and neck, as well as blunt trauma injury to her head.
Current and former male and female athletes spoke up about what they claimed was a persistent issue of domestic abuse against female athletes in the area in the weeks following Tirop’s passing. Some protestors marched through Iten’s streets calling for stronger legislation against abusers and improved protection for female athletes.
Other Kenyan athletes like Ruth Bosibori, a former African champion in the steeplechase, and Joan Chelimo, a marathon runner, said Tirop’s killing had emboldened them to talk about their own abusive relationships.
Both said they had escaped violent partners that made them fear for their lives.
Just six months after Tirop, another runner was killed. Kenyan-born Muthee, who competed for Bahrain, was found dead in a house in Iten after being strangled. Her decomposing body had been there for days before it was found, authorities said at the time.
A male Ethiopian runner with whom she was in a relationship was charged with murder. Muthee, who was 28, had a young child from another relationship.
The cases of domestic abuse in Kenya’s running community are set against the country’s overriding high rates of violence against women, which has prompted marches by ordinary citizens in towns and cities this year.
According to activists, when accomplished female athletes resist and push back against their partners’ attempts to seize control of their money and possessions in a poor area, they may be particularly susceptible. Cheptegei was killed, according to the police, after a fight with her partner about the property she had recently moved into.
In 2011, one of Kenya’s top male athletes also perished in what the authorities claimed to be a marital conflict. At twenty-four, Wanjiru was the current Olympic marathon champion. A fight with his wife led to him falling to his death from his home’s balcony. A year prior, he had been taken into custody and interrogated by law enforcement for purportedly threatening to murder his spouse using an assault rifle. He refuted the accusations.
Although Kenyan authorities ruled Wanjiru died after falling or jumping from the balcony, his family claimed that he was killed.
