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NAIROBI — Kenya’s athletics community is grappling with cases of domestic violence against female athletes. Recent deaths and injuries at the hands of abusive partners have heightened calls for justice and for authorities to halt the worrying trend.
Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, 33, died this week from injuries she sustained after her ex-boyfriend allegedly doused her with petrol and set her alight. The incident took place at her home in Endebess, Western Kenya. Her alleged killer, a Kenyan man named Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was taken to hospital with burns. He has yet to face criminal charges.
According to Cheptegei’s family, she had been in trouble for months before her death. They blamed the police for not taking action in time, saying that they a report filed when Ndiema followed her on a trip to Uganda.
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Cheptegei’s tragedy was the latest in a growing list of deadly cases of domestic violence against female athletes in the country. In October 2021, star runner Agnes Tirop was murdered in Iten, a high-altitude athletics training centre in western Kenya. She had broken the world record in the women’s 10km race just a month before her death. Her husband Ibrahim Rotich was eventually arrested and charged with murder. The case is still ongoing as Rotich has been out on bail since November last year.
Just six months after Tirop’s death, another gruesome death shocked the athletics community. Kenyan-born runner Damaris Muthee, who competed for Bahrain, was found dead in a house in Iten after being strangled. Police launched a manhunt for her alleged killer, her Ethiopian partner Eskinder Hailemariam Folie, who reportedly fled with her ID and bank details.
Other Kenyan runners, including Ruth Bosibori and Joan Chelimo, have openly stated that they escaped abusive relationships.
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Experts warn that the financial success of female elite athletes on the world stage makes them extra vulnerable to abusive partners who want to control their money, careers and assets.
“Some partners want to be in charge of athletes’ profits, sponsorship, where they go and what they do, and this right creates conflict,” Millicent Gathoni, a psychologist in Nairobi, told Semafor Africa. She stressed that sports federations needed to provide relevant support to athletes to help them better navigate their careers.
Despite these murders of female athletes in Kenya in recent years, no convictions have been secured against the killers. Securing justice for innocent victims of domestic violence is key to curbing this tragic trend.
But it is also important to note that this is not just about athletics or jealousy over finances. It is a much deeper, disturbing problem in Kenyan society. The country has been grappling with a wider femicide problem in the past year after a number of high-profile reports of brutal murders. In January, thousands of Kenyan women were took to the streets in the “#EndFemicideKE” protests following several reported cases of young women being murdered by their partners.
Kenyan Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen warned of the worrying trend in a statement issued after Cheptegei’s death. “This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which has reared its ugly head in elite sporting circles in recent years,” he said.
