A marathon runner who took part in Paris last month was hospitalized in a neighborhood after suffering a brutal domestic attack.
Kenyan police said Rebecca Cheptegi, 33, was doused in petrol by her Kenyan partner Dixon Ndima Marangache, burning 75% of her body.
Marangache broke into Cheptegi’s home at around 2:00pm on Sunday in Kenya’s western Trans-Nzoia County while she and her children were at church, before attacking her as she returned.
Police said Marangach was also burnt in the fire, but did not say if Cheptegi’s children were injured.
They said neighbors rescued the pair and rushed them to the nearby Kitale County Referral Hospital where they were admitted with “multiple burns”. Local media reported that Cheptegi was later transferred to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the nearby town of Eldoret.
Police said the pair were a couple who had “constant family quarrels” and Trans-Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah Ole Kosiome described the incident as a “domestic dispute”.
Ugandan Cheptegui, who finished last month, trains in neighboring Kenya and has a home there. And she is.
Kenya: How widespread is domestic abuse?
In 2021, the country was shocked when a 25-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her home. Tirop’s estranged husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich went on trial for her murder in 2023. He has denied the charges and his trial is ongoing.
In 2022, a Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete was found dead in a house in Iten, western Kenya, suspected to have been murdered by her Ethiopian boyfriend.
Since 1995, Kenya has launched numerous initiatives aimed at passing legislation to combat domestic and sexual violence.
However, Demographic and Health Survey data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in July 2023 showed that 35% of men and 43% of women still believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife.
In January this year, thousands of Kenyans – men and women – took to the streets of the capital, Nairobi and other major cities.
At least 500 women and girls have been killed in Kenya since 2016, according to the Africa Data Hub, a regional network of organizations that track such killings based on media reports.
mf/lo (AFP, Reuters)
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