Rebecca Cheptegei: Ugandan Olympian set on fire by her partner in domestic violence, suffers burns on 75% of body

A Ugandan marathon runner who competed in the Olympic Games in Paris last month has been hospitalized in neighboring Kenya after reportedly being the victim of a brutal domestic assault.

Kenyan police said that Rebecca Cheptegei, 33, had been doused in petrol and set alight by her Kenyan partner Dickson Ndiema Marangach, suffering burns to 75% of her body.

Marangach had reportedly entered Cheptegei's home in home in Kenya's western Trans-Nzoia county at around 2:00 pm on Sunday while she and her children were at church, before attacking her when she returned.

Police said that Marangach also suffered burns in the blaze, but did not mention whether or not Cheptegei's children were hurt.

They said neighbors had rescued the pair and taken them to nearby Kitale County Referral Hospital where they were admitted with "multiple burns." Local media reported that Cheptegei was then transferred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the nearby city of Eldoret.

Police said the pair were a couple who "constantly had family wrangles" and Trans-Nzoia county police commander Jeremiah Ole Kosiom described the incident as a "domestic dispute."

Uganda's Cheptegui, who finished 44th in the marathon in Paris last month, trains in neighboring Kenya and has a house there. And she's not the first female athlete in the country to suffer domestic abuse.

Kenya: How widespread is domestic abuse?

In 2021, the country was shocked by the death of record-breaking runner Agnes Tirop, 25, found stabbed to death in her home. Tirop's estranged husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich went on trial over her murder in 2023. He has denied the charges and his trial is ongoing.

In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee Mutua was found dead in a house in Iten, western Kenya, suspected to have been killed by her Ethiopian boyfriend.

Since 1995, Kenya has rolled out numerous initiatives aimed at ending violence against women, passing legislation to combat domestic and sexual violence.

Nevertheless, Demographic and Health Survey data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in July 2023 indicated that 35% of men and 43% of women still believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife.

In January this year, thousands of Kenyans – men and women – took to the streets of the capital, Nairobi, and other major cities to call for an end to femicide and violence against women.

According to the Africa Data Hub, a regional network of organizations that traces such killings based on media reports, at least 500 women and girls have been murdered in Kenya since 2016.