Hundreds of mourners have turned out in japanese Uganda for the funeral of Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set ablaze by her former boyfriend and later died.
Dickson Ndiema attacked her with petrol just below a fortnight in the past outdoors her residence in neighbouring north-west Kenya, near the place she educated.
The 33-year-old’s killing, and its brutal nature, left her household distraught and shocked many others internationally.
It underscored the excessive ranges of violence towards girls in Kenya and the truth that a number of feminine athletes have been victims lately.
Amongst these on the sombre and emotional funeral ceremony in a faculty subject in Bukwo, Cheptegei’s residence district, are fellow athletes sporting black T-shirts with the slogan “say no to gender-based violence”.
“We’re responsible as [a] authorities, but additionally the group is responsible,” Kenya’s Sports activities and Youth Affairs Minister Kipchumba Murkomen instructed mourners.
“Allow us to say the reality. It isn’t true that we didn’t know even in the local people that Rebecca was dealing with household issues.”
Cheptegei and Ndiema had reportedly been wrangling over a chunk of land.
One in all her teammates on the latest Paris Olympics, Stella Chesang, additionally spoke.
“It’s actually a tragic second in Uganda… and all of us associates. As a crew who we went to Paris with Rebecca, we actually felt it as a result of… we have been collectively, having fun with collectively and it’s actually unhappy,” she stated.
The Olympic marathon – wherein she got here forty fourth – was Cheptegei’s final race.
Earlier, together with her coffin on show and draped within the Ugandan flag, native leaders held a memorial service.
They noticed a second of silence and gave a standing ovation as they paid their respects to the late athlete.
Councillors stated Cheptegei lived “a easy and centered life” and at all times provided steering to her fellow athletes. “She impressed many kids within the space to affix athletics,” one stated.
In addition they proposed to call a highway and an area sports activities venue in her honour.
She is because of be buried in a while Saturday at her father’s homestead close by.
Cheptegei died in hospital 4 days after the assault. Medical doctors stated she had suffered burns on greater than 80% of her physique which “led to multi-organ failure”.
Ndiema, who was additionally burned after among the gas splashed on his personal physique, died on Monday.
He attacked the mother-of-two after she returned from a service at a church, the God’s Dwelling Ministry.
The pastor there, Caroline Atieno, remembers a “fantastic… God-fearing particular person”.
After listening to about what had occurred, she managed to talk to Cheptegei on the cellphone whereas she was in hospital.
The athlete first requested about her kids, who have been each superb, the pastor instructed the BBC’s Africa Every day podcast.
Then Cheptegei talked about her attacker: “You imply Dickson just isn’t capable of see all I’ve achieved for him? He couldn’t keep in mind even one or two issues I’ve achieved for him and cease setting me on fireplace? Why has he achieved this to me?”
On Friday, relations, associates and activists towards gender-based violence considered her coffin at a funeral residence within the Kenyan city of Eldoret, earlier than it was pushed away.
Her mom, Agnes Cheptegei, masking her face in anguish, was sporting a memento bag that the athlete obtained on the latest Olympics.
She was wearing a T-shirt which had the slogan “being a girl shouldn’t be a dying sentence” printed on it.
The mother-of-two was the third feminine athlete to be killed in Kenya over the past three years. In every case, present or former romantic companions have been named as the primary suspects by police.
In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to dying and 6 months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.
Assaults on girls have change into a significant concern in Kenya. In 2022 at the least 34% of girls stated that they had skilled bodily violence, in line with a nationwide survey.
Some observers are saying that feminine athletes have gotten more and more weak.
“[This is] as a result of they go towards conventional gender norms the place the lady is simply within the kitchen and simply cooking and taking good care of youngsters. However now feminine athletes have gotten extra impartial, financially impartial,” stated Joan Chelimo, who co-founded Tirop’s Angels to assist spotlight the problem of violence towards girls.
“We do not need this to occur to another girl, whether or not an athlete or from the village, or a younger woman,” Rachel Kamweru, a spokesperson of the federal government’s division for gender and affirmative motion, instructed the BBC.
When Cheptegei first bought into operating, she joined the Uganda Individuals’s Defence Forces in 2008 which helped help her.
Her final race was on the Paris Olympics. Though she got here forty fourth folks in her residence space nonetheless referred to her as “champion”.
She gained gold on the World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.
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