suspect in the death of Rebecca Cheptegei died in hospital – Libération

2024-09-11 17:16:27

A teammate of a Ugandan athlete who participated in the Paris Olympics killed him by burning him, which caused outrage around the world. He died on Tuesday September 10.

The killer of Rebecca Cheptegei died from burns she suffered when she doused the Ugandan marathon runner with petrol and set her on fire, the hospital in western Kenya where she was being treated has announced Tuesday, September 10. Presented by the Kenyan police as a fellow athlete, Dickson Ndiema Marangach suffered 41% burns, according to the hospital, during this deadly attack that became an example of violence against women.

“He developed respiratory failure followed by severe respiratory tract burns and sepsis which resulted in his death,” Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret said in a statement on Tuesday. He was pronounced dead on Monday evening, the hospital said. “We think we have done justice,” commented the athlete’s father, Joseph Cheptegei. “We only love our daughter now,” he added, expressing his dismay at this predicament.

On September 1, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, 32, doused Rebecca Cheptegei with petrol and set her on fire as she returned from church with her two children at her home in Endebess, western Kenya. More than 80% burned and hospitalized, the 33-year-old athlete died last Thursday. They will be buried on Saturday in his family village in eastern Uganda. According to his relatives, the attack stemmed from a dispute over the land he bought to build his house.

Global outrage

This murder, a few weeks after his participation in the marathon of the Paris Olympic Games (44th), provoked emotion and anger in the world. Spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, in particular “steady” blame this “violent murder”, “which describes a far-reaching and largely ignored problem”, of violence against women. The city of Paris announced that it would name a stadium after him.

Her death joins those of many victims of gender-based violence in Kenya, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recorded 725 women killed in gender-related killings in the year 2022.

Kenyan sports have been beleaguered three times in three years by this kind of killing. In October 2021, the promising athlete Agnes Tirop (25 years old), she won two world bronze medals in 10,000 m (2017, 2019) and 4th in the Tokyo Olympics in 5,000 m, was found in a knife off at his home in Iten, a popular training location for long distance running in the Rift Valley. Her husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich is on trial for murder. He denied the allegations. Your test is ongoing. In April 2022, another Bahraini athlete of Kenyan origin, Damaris Mutua, was found dead in Iten. His companion, on the run, is suspected of having killed him.