The man who attacked Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei died of injuries incurred when he poured fuel on the Olympian, the Kenyan hospital treating him announced Tuesday.
According to police, Dickson Ndiema Marangach assaulted Cheptegei at her house in western Kenya on September 1.
The mother of two died last week after sustaining 80 percent burns.
Marangach was hospitalised in the intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, Rift Valley, after suffering 30 percent burns during the attack.
“It’s true we lost Dickson Ndiema last night at about 8:00 pm,” an official at the hospital’s communications department told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the press.
His family had been notified, the official said, adding that a “comprehensive statement” will be issued later.
The attack on the 33-year-old Cheptegei has been met with sadness and outrage as yet another horrible incident of gender-based violence in the East African country.
Since 2021, at least two other athletes have died at the hands of their partners. Cheptegei will be buried on September 14 near her family home in eastern Uganda, according to the country’s Olympic Committee.
The attack, which local media claimed was observed by Cheptegei’s daughters, occurred just weeks after she made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon at the Paris Games, finishing 44th.
According to police, Marangach slipped into her home in Endebess, near the Ugandan border, while she was at church with her children.
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, informed reporters that the conflict with Marangach was about the property where she resided with her sister and daughters.
“He poured the petrol and lit her on fire. When she called her sister to help, he threatened her with a machete, and she ran away.”
The police stated that the couple had “constantly had family wrangles.”
