Analysis: The Murder of Olympic Marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei is an Alarming Call for Action

September 11, 2024

Rebecca Cheptegei had just returned from church with her two daughters, ages 9 and 11, on a Sunday afternoon. She couldn’t have known that later that day, September 1, she would struggle to breathe and fight for her life as she lay in the intensive care unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

Dickson Ndiema, with whom Cheptegei had a relationship but was reportedly separated, showed up unannounced to her home in western Kenya. A local police report stated that the two were heard quarreling about land that Cheptegei purchased before Ndiema allegedly doused her with a jerrican of gasoline, then set her on fire. RUN