Murdered Ugandan Olympian Cheptegei buried with full military honours

Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after being set on fire by former partner, was buried at her ancestral home.

Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after being doused in petrol and set on fire by her former partner, has been buried with full military honours at her ancestral home in Uganda’s northeast.

The 33-year-old, who debuted this summer in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, died of severe burns last week after being attacked by Kenyan Dickson Ndiema Marangach – an assault that prompted a global outpouring of tributes.

Hundreds of residents, relatives, officials and fellow Olympians from Uganda and Kenya paid their respects to Cheptegei on Saturday in Bukwo village near Uganda’s border with Kenya. Her body was lowered into her grave with full military honours, including  a gun salute by the Ugandan military, in which she served.

Cheptegei in action during the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics [File: Dylan Martinez/Reuters]

“She embodied the admirable spirit of resilience, selflessness, generosity and hard work, which worked together to catapult her to international glory,” said Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s sports minister. Her death, he said, marked “a tragic end to a blossoming life”.

Ugandan Sports Minister Peter Ogwang condemned the “barbaric and cowardly” attack that had taken her life and said the government would give roughly $13,000 to each of Cheptegei’s children.

‘Bury me in Uganda’

Cheptegei lived in the highlands of western Kenya, an area popular with international runners for its high-altitude training facilities. She came 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics on August 11 – her final race.

Three weeks later, Marangach attacked Cheptegei on September 1 as she returned from church with her two daughters and younger sister in the village of Kinyoro.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told the Reuters news agency his daughter had approached police at least three times to file complaints against Marangach, who died a few days after Cheptegei from burns sustained during the attack.

She suffered burns to 80 percent of her body and succumbed to her injuries four days later.

“I don’t think I am going to make it,” her father said she told him while being treated in hospital. “If I die, just bury me at home in Uganda.”

Agnes Cheptegei mourns next to the coffin of her Olympian daughter [Edwin Waita/Reuters]

Cheptegei’s estranged husband, Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters, said the family was “extremely saddened”.

“As a father, it has been very difficult,” he told the AFP news agency, adding that he had not been able to break the news to their children. “Slowly, we will tell them the truth.”

Cheptegei’s death sparked anger over the high levels of violence against women in Kenya, particularly in the athletics community. The marathoner was the third elite runner to die allegedly at the hands of a romantic partner since 2021.

One in three Kenyan girls and women aged 15 to 49 have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022.

Rights groups said female athletes in Kenya are at a high risk of exploitation and violence by men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.

Cheptegei’s sporting successes include winning the 2021 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand and a year later earning first place in the Padova Marathon in Italy and setting a national record for the marathon.

The athlete was a “heroine”, local presidential representative Bessie Modest Ajilong told AFP.

“As leaders, we saw Cheptegei as an inspiration.”