The alleged killer of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, Kenyan Dickson Ndiema Maranganch, has died at Eldoret hospital in western Kenya, where he had been admitted since last week after burning the marathon runner alive and suffering serious burns himself, the medical centre reported on Tuesday.
Maranganch, with whom Cheptegei was romantically involved and from whom she had been separated for some time, died on Monday evening, five days after her, at the same place, at Moi University and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, a mecca of athletics in East Africa.
According to preliminary police investigation, Maranganch, who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), doused Cheptegei with a five-litre can of petrol and set it on fire after an argument at the athlete’s home in Trans.-Nzoia County, western Kenya. The man entered the victim’s house on Sunday, September 1, while the 33-year-old athlete was at church with her two children, and assaulted her upon her return.
As a result, Cheptegei suffered burns to 80 percent of his body that affected his vital organs, and Maranganch to 30 percent, according to a hospital statement reported by local media. The autopsy of the athlete, who will be buried next Saturday in eastern Uganda, will be carried out on Wednesday, according to Kenyan press.
According to his family, this is a case of gender-based violence that could have been avoided if the police had acted in time against the athlete’s alleged attacker.
“Government agencies failed us because we had informed them well in advance about her safety as this man was following her even to Uganda but they did not act promptly. It was obvious that her life was in danger,” the runner’s father, Joseph Cheptegei, said in statements to the media last Thursday.
The latest complaint was filed just two days before the alleged attack in Maranganch, Joseph Cheptegei said.
The athlete died last Wednesday night “after all her organs failed,” according to Dr Owen Menach, acting director of Moi Hospital. The athlete had represented Uganda in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, where she placed 44th. Her death shortly afterward caused great shock in her country, Kenya and the world.
