According to authorities, a Ugandan athlete who lives in Kenya was attacked and set on fire by her boyfriend. She is currently undergoing treatment for burns covering 75% of her body.
Attacked in her home in western Trans Nzoia County, Rebecca Cheptegei is a distance runner who placed 44th in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Following a Sunday argument, Dickson Ndiema, Cheptegei’s boyfriend, purchased a jerrican of gasoline, poured it on her, and lit her flames, according to Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah Ole Kosiom, who made this announcement on Monday. Ndiema also had burn injuries, and in the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret City, the two are getting specialist care.
According to Cheptegei’s parents, their daughter purchased land in Trans Nzoia to be close to the county’s numerous athletic training centers.
Before the fire started, the couple was heard fighting over the land where the house was erected, according to a report submitted by the local chief.
Olympic steeplechaser and runner Benjamin Kiplagat of Uganda was discovered dead from stab wounds in 2023. Athlete Damaris Muthee, a Bahraini native born in Kenya, was discovered dead in 2022, and a postmortem examination indicated that she had been strangled.
(AP)
