TRAGIC DEATH OF UGANDAN OLYMPIAN HIGHLIGHTS URGENT NEED FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Ugandan Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, 33, has tragically passed away after being set on fire by her boyfriend in Kenya.

The attack, which result­ed in burns cov­er­ing over 75% of her body, marks yet anoth­er hor­rif­ic inci­dent of vio­lence against female ath­letes in the region.

Chep­tegei, who com­pet­ed in the Paris Olympics, died Thurs­day morn­ing at Moi Teach­ing and Refer­ral Hos­pi­tal in Eldoret, Kenya. This dev­as­tat­ing loss fol­lows a dis­turb­ing trend of vio­lence against women in Kenya, where near­ly 34% of women aged 15–49 have expe­ri­enced phys­i­cal vio­lence.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to com­bat gen­der-based vio­lence in our soci­ety,” said Kenyan Sports Min­is­ter Kipchum­ba Murkomen, echo­ing the grow­ing call for action. Ugan­da’s ath­let­ics fed­er­a­tion and Olympic Com­mit­tee have also demand­ed jus­tice for Chep­tegei, con­demn­ing the per­sis­tent vio­lence faced by women.

The killing of female ath­letes, includ­ing the 2021 mur­der of Olympian Agnes Tirop, has brought atten­tion to the exploita­tion and abuse women face in the sports world. Activists like Joan Che­limo, co-founder of ‘Tirop’s Angels,’ empha­size the urgent need to pro­tect women from preda­tors who exploit their suc­cess.

This trag­ic event under­scores the crit­i­cal impor­tance of fight­ing for wom­en’s rights and ensur­ing safe­ty for all, espe­cial­ly in vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties.