The ex-boyfriend accused of killing Ugandan Olympian runner Rebecca Cheptegei by setting her on fire has died from his burns, according to a hospital official.
Dickson Ndiema Marangach was accused of dousing Cheptegei, 33, in petrol and setting her on fire on Sept. 1. Cheptegei was taken to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, with burns on more than 75% of her body, as reported by Reuters. She died four days later.
Ndiema Marangach was taken to the same hospital and was admitted to the ICU with burns on more than 40% of his body.
"He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that led to his eventual death," Philip Kirwa, the CEO of the hospital, said in a statement.
Local media reported that Ndiema Marangach allegedly ambushed Cheptegei after she returned home from church. The two had reportedly had several disagreements about a piece of land in northwest Kenya where Cheptegei lived and trained.
Neighbors told local media that they heard screams before Cheptegei came running to them for help.
"I don't wish bad things on anyone, but of course I would have loved for him to face the law as an example for others so that these attacks on women can stop," Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary-general of the Uganda Olympic Committee, told Reuters.
Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. She was the third elite sportswoman from Kenya to be killed since October 2021. In each case, police named the women's current or former romantic partner as the suspect.
Agnes Tirop, who held the world record for the 10-kilometer race, was stabbed to death in 2021, and Damaris Mutea, who was born in Kenya but competed for Bahrain, was strangled in 2022, as reported by the BBC.
Police had been treating Cheptegei's death as murder, which meant that Ndiema Marangach found have faced charges as the prime suspect, but since his death the criminal case has been dropped and an inquest into the deaths will be opened instead.
"Justice really would have been for him to sit in jail and think about what he had done. This is not positive news whatsoever," Viola Cheptoo, the co-founder of Tirop's Angels, a support group for survivors of domestic violence in Kenya's athletic community, told Reuters.
A national survey from 2022 found that 34% of Kenyan girls and women ages 15 to 49 reported experiencing physical violence. Married women faced an even higher risk at 41%.
