Slain Ugandan Olympian buried with full military honours

KAMPALA: Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after allegedly being doused in petrol and set alight by her former partner, was buried Saturday with full military honours at her ancestral place in Uganda’s northeast.

Cheptegei, 33, returned to her home in the highlands of western Kenya, an area popular with international runners for its high altitude training facilities, after coming 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics on August 11.

It would be her final race.

Three weeks later her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, allegedly attacked Cheptegei as she returned from church with her two daughters and younger sister in the village of Kinyoro, Kenya police and her family said.

Her father Joseph Cheptegei said that his daughter had approached police at least three times to file complaints against Marangach, most recently on Aug. 30, two days before the alleged attack by her former partner.

She suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and succumbed to her injuries four days later.

“We are extremely saddened,” said her estranged husband Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters. “As a father it has been very difficult,” he added, explaining he had not been able to break the news to their children. “Slowly we will tell them the truth.”

Hundreds of mourners, including fellow Olympians from Uganda and Kenya, gathered for her funeral in Bukwo in Uganda’s northeast near the border with Kenya.

In speeches she was fondly eulogised as a hero, a mother and sister, and afterwards her body was lowered into her grave minutes after 5 p.m. (1200 GMT). She was buried in full military honours, including a gun salute by the Ugandan military of which she was a member.

“She embodied the admirable spirit of resilience, selflessness, generosity and hard work, which worked together to catapult her to international glory,” Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s sports minister said as he eulogised the athlete. Her death, he said, had marked “a tragic end to a blossoming life.”

The service to honour Cheptegei, a sergeant in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), started around 10:00 am (0700 GMT), with officials and relatives gathering at the local council office.

The coffin, swathed in the Ugandan flag, was saluted by officers from the UPDF who carried her body into the room overlooking the remote rolling hills of her childhood.

The athlete was a “heroine”, local presidential representative Bessie Modest Ajilong said, describing her as “out of ordinary”. “As leaders, we saw Cheptegei as an inspiration.”

Her body was moved from the local council headquarters to a nearby sports stadium where hundreds gathered to pay their respects.

Scores of athletes, among them Kenyan athletes Mary Keitany and Daniel Komen, travelled to the small village to attend the ceremonies.

Cheptegei’s death sparked anger over the high levels of violence against women in Kenya, particularly in the athletics community, with the marathoner becoming the third elite runner to allegedly die at the hands of a romantic partner since 2021.

The vicious assault has thrown yet another spotlight on what activists have called a femicide epidemic.

Kenya reported 725 femicide cases in 2022 alone, according to the latest UN figures.

A report the following year by Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics found 34 percent of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

The circumstances of Cheptegei’s death shocked the world, but her name may yet inspire future athletes, with the French capital planning to name a sports facility in her honour.

“She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom,” the city’s mayor Anne Hidalgo told reporters. “Paris will not forget her.”

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2024