Cheptegei: Cast in sad script of female athletes killings

The athletics world is reeling in shock as a growing number of the Kenya’s global stars fall in shocking attacks.

The country’s female athletes, including those representing other countries, are the worst hit by the deadly attacks.

Suspects of their killings are people they loved, trusted and even shared their hard-earned properties with.

Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei’s killing in Kinyoro, Trans Nzoia County in September is the latest cast in the continuing, ugly same script of murders.

Cheptegei suffered 80 per cent burns after her boyfriend Dickson Ndiema doused her in petrol before setting her ablaze at her home.

Her death rekindled the terrifying memories of athletes’ love life that turned sour and, eventually, tragic.

From property disputes to suspected cheating in relationships, athletes have faced hell on earth.

The Olympian, who represented Uganda at the Paris Olympic Games that concluded on August 11, competing in the marathon, died on Thursday September 5 while the suspect, Ndiema, succumbed to 30 per cent burns on Monday September 9.

The two ex-lovebirds, who fell out over the ownership of an eighth of an acre that Cheptegei’s house sits on in Kinyoro, Trans Nzoia West unsuccessfully battled for their lives at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

According to the fallen Rebecca’s father Joseph Cheptegei, his daughter had a husband in Uganda.

In October 2021, Agnes Tirop was found dead at her house in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, where she had been training for over six years. She had been stabbed in the neck.

Jilted lover and coach Ibrahim Rotich is still facing trial over Tirop’s death.

Even before the country healed, another star, Edna Muthoni was brutally murdered in Kianjege village in Kirinyaga County, barely a week after Agnes was killed in Iten.

Muthoni’s husband Kennedy Chomba was the prime suspect in the murder.

Muthoni’s throat was slit using a machete.

In April 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead in a house in Iten, just six months after Tirop was found murdered under similar circumstances.

Muthee’s body was discovered in a male Ethiopian athlete’s house in Lilies Estate, barely a kilometre from the house where Tirop’s lifeless body was discovered. 

Authorities said Muthee was suspected to have been killed by the Ethiopian athlete identified as Eskanda Hailemariam.

The late Muthee, who had Kenyan and Bahraini citizenship, according to government authorities, had visited the suspect, who was said to be her partner, on a Saturday after training.

Muthee, who was born and raised in Masinga, was a mother of one child, and had a husband who lived outside the country, according to information recorded by the family during investigations.

 After the death of Agnes, women lawyers from the North Rift demanded urgent measures to stop Gender-Based Violence in sports.

The women advocates under North Rift Lady Lawyers Association said the sporting environment was no longer safe following recent killings of athletes.

“We call upon all stakeholders, including government agencies, sports organisations, and civil society, to join us in addressing this critical issue and ensuring that Kenya’s sporting environment is safe, fair and just for all athletes,” the women lawyers said in a statement signed by Mercy Ruto.