The previous boyfriend of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who killed her by setting her on fireplace, has himself died from burns sustained within the assault, a Kenyan hospital official has mentioned.
Dickson Ndiema ambushed the marathon runner as she returned dwelling from church greater than per week in the past after which doused her with petrol and set her ablaze.
Native directors mentioned 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 night time on the intensive care unit the place he had been admitted with greater than 30% burns on his physique.
“It is true he has died from the [burn] accidents,” Dr Owen Menach from Moi Instructing and Referral Hospital within the city of Eldoret instructed the BBC.
Ms Cheptegei died last Thursday from 80% burns she sustained during the attack 4 days earlier.
Neighbours mentioned that they heard screams earlier than Cheptegei got here operating in the direction of them shouting for assist.
Native media reported that Ndiema snuck into Cheptegei’s dwelling in western Kenya’s Trans Nzoia county with a five-litre jerry can filled with petrol earlier than the deadly assault.
He reportedly was then splashed within the gas as he focused Cheptegei and subsequently received caught within the fireplace as he set her alight.
Ndiema was to face costs as police mentioned they have been treating Cheptegei’s demise as homicide, with the previous boyfriend named as the primary suspect.
Each of them have been admitted to Moi Hospital earlier than their deaths.
Cheptegei’s demise shocked folks internationally, with fellow Ugandans saying she was an inspiration to them.
The 33-year-old Olympian was the third athlete to be killed in Kenya within the final three years, the place intimate companions have been named as the primary suspects by police.
In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to demise and 6 months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.
Cheptegei was born on the Kenyan facet of the Kenya-Uganda border, however selected to cross over and characterize Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she didn’t get a breakthrough in Kenya.
When she began moving into operating, 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 dwelling space referred to as her “champion”.
Cheptegei is about to be buried on Saturday at her ancestral dwelling in Bukwo, Uganda.
Assaults on ladies have grow to be a significant concern in Kenya. In 2022 a minimum of 34% of girls mentioned they’d skilled bodily violence, in response to a nationwide survey.