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 attack on September 1 from burns affecting 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 1830 (1530 GMT).
“He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that led to his eventual death,” Kirwa said in a statement.
Following his attack on Cheptegei, which the local media claimed occurred after she got home from church with her kids, Kirwa claimed Marangach had over 41% burns.
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 in Kenya have reported that female athletes, particularly international runners, are at a high risk of exploitation and violence due to men’s exploitation of their prize money. Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for survivors of domestic violence in Kenya’s athletic community, criticized the recent death of Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s competitive athletics scene, who was found dead in her home in Iten in October 2021. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty. Government data from 2022 shows that 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 years have experienced physical violence, with married women at particular risk. A 2023 UN Women study found that a woman is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes globally. Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary-general of the Uganda Olympic Committee, expressed her desire for Rotich to face the law as an example for others to prevent these attacks on women.
(Reuters)
