2024-09-10 10:54:29
The ex-boyfriend of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who died on Thursday after being set on fire by him, has also died, a hospital in Kenya said.
Dixon Ndiema stalked the athlete on her way home from church, doused her in petrol and set her on fire just over a week ago.
According to local officials, they were arguing over a small piece of land in northwestern Kenya where Cheptegei lived and trained.
Ndiema died on Monday in the intensive care unit of Eldoret Hospital with 30% damage to his body from the attack.
Cheptegei died on Thursday last week with 80% burns from the attack four days earlier.
Police planned to charge Ndiema with murder if he had survived.
Cheptegei, 33, was the third Kenyan athlete to die after being attacked by an intimate partner in recent years. In 2021, world record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death by her husband, and 6 months later Damaris Mutua was strangled by her boyfriend.
Cheptegei was born in Kenya but moved to Uganda after she was not selected for the national team in 2008. The athlete was a sergeant in her new country’s army. In Paris, at the Olympics, she finished 44th among women.