Man who killed Uganda-born Olympic athlete dies from same gasoline attack he caused

Sept. 10 (UPI) -- The ex-partner accused of killing Olympic runner and Uganda-born athlete Rebecca Cheptegei by setting her on fire also has died after injuries sustained in the same incident, according to reports.

Dickson Ndiema Marangach, 32, died Monday evening from burns sustained on 40% of his body in the same horrific attack he instigated and was pronounced dead at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

It was the same medical facility where Cheptegei died last week.

Marangach had developed a respiratory failure stemming from severe airway burns, according to a hospital statement to The New York Times .

Police, who planned to charge him with murder, say Marangach poured gasoline on Cheptegei and also was burned in the fire before both were treated at the same Eldoret city hospital.

The two died within days of each other and weeks after Cheptegei competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She sustained 80% burns in the attack.

Last week, her family called for justice and legal action against her alleged attacker.

A tribute for Cheptegei was held Sunday in Paris by organizers of the Paralympic Games after its marathon racing competition.

DICKSON Ndiema, Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei's attacker, succumbs to multiple burns at MTRH in Eldoret. https://t.co/3CXSnKVw7z — CapitalFM Breaking News (@BreakingNewsKE) September 10, 2024

Cheptegei, 33, was a marathon runner who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics. She finished 44th in the marathon at last month's Olympic games and also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai Thailand two years ago.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says the city will name a sports venue in honor of the late Ugandan runner.

"Paris will not forget her," Hidalgo said.

She was attacked at her home in western Kenya after returning from church with her two children. A local administrator in Trans Nzoia county, which is close to Kenya's athletic training centers, said the couple had been fighting over a piece of land Cheptegei purchased to build her house.

"The couple were heard quarreling outside their house in the small town of Endebess. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her," local police chief Jeremiah Ole Kosiom had told reporters at the time.

Along with Cheptegei, other Kenyan athletes also have been victims of femicide in recent years as violence against women continues in other locales such as South Africa. Violent attacks against women in Kenya is a large concern, with at least 34% of women reporting that they had experienced physical violence.

"This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports," Kenya Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen previously said.

According to a 2022 U.N. report , Africa had the highest rate of gender-based violence and killings, or "femicide," of women than any other continent with an estimated 20,000 women that year. However, more accurate figures may be higher.

Cheptegei is not the only known athlete in Africa to have been targeted by a partner or in general. Ugandan Olympic runner and steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat was stabbed to death by assailants in Eldoret last year.

And within the last few years, Kenyan-born Bahraini runner Damaris Mutua was found strangled in 2022 in the Rift Valley town of Iten in Kenya. Months earlier, record-breaking long-distance runner Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death in the same town by her husband.

"May [Cheptegei's] gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women. This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure," Uganda's Olympic Committee's Donald Rukare said recently on X.