The previous boyfriend of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who killed her by setting her on hearth, has himself died from burns sustained within the assault, a Kenyan hospital official has stated.
Dickson Ndiema ambushed the marathon runner as she returned residence from church greater than per week in the past, earlier than dousing her with petrol and setting her ablaze.
Native directors stated the 2 had been in battle over a small piece of land in north-west Kenya, the place Cheptegei lived and skilled.
Ndiema died on Monday evening on the intensive care unit the place he had been admitted with greater than 30% burns on his physique.
“It’s true he has died from the [burn] accidents,” Dr Owen Menach from Moi Instructing and Referral Hospital advised the BBC.
Ms Cheptegei died final Thursday from 80% burns she sustained in the course of the assault 4 days earlier.
Neighbours advised the BBC that they heard screams earlier than Cheptegei got here working in the direction of them shouting for assist.
Ndiema was to face prices as police stated they had been treating Cheptegei’s loss of life as homicide, with the previous boyfriend named as the principle suspect.
Each of them had been admitted to Moi Hospital in Eldoret earlier than their deaths.
The 33-year-old Olympian was the third athlete to be killed in Kenya within the final three years, the place intimate companions had been named as the principle suspects by police.
In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to loss of life and 6 months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.
Cheptegei was born on the Kenyan aspect of the Kenya-Uganda border, however selected to cross over and symbolize Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she didn’t get a breakthrough in Kenya.
When she began stepping into working, she joined the Uganda Folks’s Defence Forces in 2008 and rose to sergeant rank.
Her profession included competing on this yr’s Paris Olympics. Though she got here forty fourth within the marathon, folks in her residence space referred to as her “champion”.
Cheptegei is about to be buried on Saturday at her ancestral residence in Bukwo, Uganda.
Assaults on ladies have change into a significant concern in Kenya. In 2022 at the least 34% of ladies stated they’d skilled bodily violence, in accordance with a nationwide survey.