Ugandan Olympic runner dies after being set on fire by boyfriend

The 32-year-old runner’s father, Joseph Cheptegei, told The Washington Post that his daughter had reported the man, whom he referred to as her ex-boyfriend, to the police several times for domestic violence, including last Friday. The family was told to return to see police on Monday, but on Sunday the man doused her in gasoline and set her alight, her father said. Cheptegei has two daughters ages 9 and 11, he added.

“In January this year, he beat Rebecca, and he wanted to cut her up but Rebecca was saved by her brother,” Cheptegei said. “We reported to the police … the police did not handle this matter well, they were so slow.”

Paul Songok, a police officer with the Department of Criminal Investigation in Trans-Nzoia county, confirmed that the family had lodged complaints of attacks and threats at the local police station.

Police commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom told reporters that the suspect, Dickson Nidema, set her on fire after a disagreement, had also sustained burns and was now in the hospital as well.

Neighbor Simon Kiptoek, 35, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack and told The Post that the suspect had also spilled petrol on himself and been badly burned.

The case follows the high-profile killings of other female long-distance runners in Kenya: Agnes Jebet Tirop, 25, a Kenyan whose husband was charged with her murder after her body was found with stab wounds in 2021; and Damaris Muthee Mutua, a 28-year-old found strangled in 2022. Police launched a manhunt after her boyfriend, an Ethiopian runner, fled. He has not been found.

Rebecca Cheptegei had moved from Uganda because of violence in her home area, her father said, and bought land near the elite training grounds in Eldoret, whose high altitude and fierce running culture has produced a slew of Olympic champions. In Kenya, she met a man who quickly tried to take control of her property and house, he said.

“Whenever Rebecca came with things or had things he wanted to be the one that keeps or takes it away. That’s why they fought,” he said. “Rebecca told me that the man wanted to take away her property.”

He said that his daughter had broken up with the individual and the family had made numerous reports to the police, saying he had threatened his daughter’s life. Rebecca Cheptegei, who holds the women’s Ugandan marathon record, did not perform well at the Paris Olympics because she was so stressed about the threats, her father said.

“She left for the Olympics when she was so stressed because this man was disturbing her, that’s why she probably did not perform well,” he said. “I have 13 children, Rebecca was the second-born and the whole family depended on her,” he said. “She was our pillar because we are poor and she was our only hope.”