Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has this morning been pronounced dead after being set ablaze by her former Kenyan boyfriend.
According to reports, Rebecca Cheptegei and her boyfriend Dickson Ndiema Marangach disagreed a few days back resulting in a heated altercation.
The incident reportedly happened on Sunday, when Marangach stormed Cheptegei’s home in Endebess with a five-liter jerrican of petrol.
Following Cheptegei’s return from church with their two children, he reportedly soaked her in petrol, before touching her.
They both sustained serious injuries and neighbors rushed them to the nearby hospital to save their lives according to local police chief Jeremiah Ole Kosiom.
Rebecca Cheptegei was since admitted to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, where she was in the ICU.
Unfortunately, after days in the ICU, Rebecca Cheptegei lost the battle and breathed her last today morning. Marangach is also being treated in the same ICU, with about 30 percent of his body burned.
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Rebecca Cheptegei has been a Ugandan cross-country runner, long-distance, and marathon runner. She represented Uganda at World Championships in 2010 and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in the women’s marathon.
