EPAOlympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set ablaze by her former boyfriend and later died has been buried in her father’s homestead in japanese Uganda.
As she was additionally a member of Uganda’s armed forces, troopers carried the coffin and she or he was given a three-volley salute.
Dickson Ndiema attacked Cheptegei with petrol just below a fortnight in the past outdoors her residence in neighbouring north-west Kenya, near the place she skilled.
The 33-year-old’s killing, and its brutal nature, left her household distraught and shocked many others the world over.
It underscored the excessive ranges of violence in opposition to girls in Kenya and the truth that a number of feminine athletes have been victims in recent times.
Amongst these on the sombre and emotional funeral ceremony in a faculty subject in Bukwo, Cheptegei’s residence district, have been fellow athletes carrying black T-shirts with the slogan “say no to gender-based violence”.
“We are guilty as [a] government, but also the community is guilty,” Kenya’s Sports activities and Youth Affairs Minister Kipchumba Murkomen informed mourners.
“Let us say the truth. It is not true that we did not know even in the local community that Rebecca was facing family problems.”
Cheptegei and Ndiema had reportedly been wrangling over a bit of land.
Considered one of her teammates on the latest Paris Olympics, Stella Chesang, additionally spoke.
“It is really a sad moment in Uganda… and all of us friends. As a team who we went to Paris with Rebecca, we really felt it because… we were together, enjoying together and it is really sad,” she mentioned.
The Olympic marathon – through which she got here forty fourth – was Cheptegei’s final race.
Peter Njoroge / BBCEarlier, together with her coffin on show and draped within the Ugandan flag, native leaders held a memorial service.
They noticed a second of silence and gave a standing ovation as they paid their respects to the late athlete.
Councillors mentioned Cheptegei lived “a simple and focused life” and all the time provided steerage to her fellow athletes. “She inspired many children in the area to join athletics,” one mentioned.
Additionally they proposed to call a street and a neighborhood sports activities venue in her honour.
Peter Njoroge / BBCCheptegei died in hospital 4 days after the assault. Docs mentioned she had suffered burns on greater than 80% of her physique which “led to multi-organ failure”.
Ndiema, who was additionally burned after a few of the gas splashed on his personal physique, died on Monday.
He attacked the mother-of-two after she returned from a service at a church, the God’s Dwelling Ministry.
The pastor there, Caroline Atieno, remembers a “wonderful… God-fearing person”.
After listening to about what had occurred, she managed to talk to Cheptegei on the cellphone whereas she was in hospital.
The athlete first requested about her kids, who have been each effective, the pastor informed the BBC’s Africa Day by day podcast.
Then Cheptegei talked about her attacker: “You mean Dickson is not able to see all I have done for him? He could not remember even one or two things I have done for him and stop setting me on fire? Why has he done this to me?”
Peter Njoroge / BBCOn Friday, members of the family, associates and activists in opposition to gender-based violence seen her coffin at a funeral residence within the Kenyan city of Eldoret, earlier than it was pushed away.
Her mom, Agnes Cheptegei, protecting her face in anguish, was carrying a memento bag that the athlete obtained on the latest Olympics.
She was wearing a T-shirt which had the slogan “being a woman should not be a death sentence” printed on it.
The mother-of-two was the third feminine athlete to be killed in Kenya over the past three years. In every case, present or former romantic companions have been named as the principle suspects by police.
In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to demise and 6 months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.
EPAAssaults on girls have change into a serious concern in Kenya. In 2022 at the least 34% of ladies mentioned they’d skilled bodily violence, in line with a nationwide survey.
Some observers are saying that feminine athletes have gotten more and more susceptible.
“[This is] because they go against traditional gender norms where the woman is just in the kitchen and just cooking and taking care of kids. But now female athletes are becoming more independent, financially independent,” mentioned Joan Chelimo, who co-founded Tirop’s Angels to assist spotlight the problem of violence in opposition to girls.
“We don’t want this to happen to any other woman, whether an athlete or from the village, or a young girl,” Rachel Kamweru, a spokesperson of the federal government’s division for gender and affirmative motion, informed the BBC.
When Cheptegei first received into working, she joined the Uganda Individuals’s Defence Forces in 2008 which helped help her.
Her final race was on the Paris Olympics. Though she got here forty fourth individuals in her residence space nonetheless referred to her as “champion”.
She gained gold on the World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.
Getty Photos/BBC