Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei is the third female runner to have been killed in an alleged act of domestic violence at the same elite training camp in three years.
Cheptegei, 33, suffered horrendous burns to 80 per cent of her body in a brutal attack that was reportedly carried out by her ex-boyfriend Dickson Ndiema.
While Cheptegei is from Uganda, like many top distance runners, she trained at Iten in Kenya.
Iten is known as the running capital of the world. It is almost eight thousand feet above sea level, allowing athletes to train at altitude.
While the area remains poor, the top athletes can earn more than $1million a year from endorsements and winnings, while around 30 female athletes earn more than $100,000, a massive amount in a country where a third of the population lives below the poverty line.
Sadly, this can mean young women from deprived backgrounds are taken advantage of when they start to become successful.
Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei (pictured), died in hospital, it has been announced
In 2021, Agnes Jebet Tirop, who was one of the world’s leading long distance runners, was stabbed to death at her home in Kenya, just five weeks after breaking the world record. Ibrahim Rotich is awaiting trial.
On the same day, professional runner Edith Muthoni was allegedly shot in the head after a violent argument with her boyfriend, Kennedy Nyamu. She was 27.
In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead in Iten, allegedly having been killed by her boyfriend.
Brother Colm O’Connell is an Irish Missionary who set up his first female-only running groups in Kenya in the 1980s, and is known as the ‘The Godfather of Kenyan running’ thanks to his work in the East African country.
Last year, he spoke to a Bloomberg documentary explaining how men often visit the training camps looking for young, vulnerable female runners.
‘There are men, if I could use the phrase “lurking around” and they’re prepared to cash in on somebody else’s efforts and energies,’ he said.
‘They are opportunists. They see this as a way of enhancing themselves, as a way of getting on in life themselves. As you become a successful person, you’re an easy target.’
Agnes, who was 25, was a two-time world 10,000m bronze medallist and world record holder.
Record-breaking Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop was found dead on October 13, 2021 with stab wounds to her stomach in a suspected homicide, athletics officials said
Agnes Jebet Tirop of Kenya pictured at the Women’s 10,000 Metres final during day two of 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2019
Agnes Tirop is pictured with her husband Ibrahim Rotich, who is now on trial, accused of murdering the promising track star
Her brother Martin told the New Yorker the family were ‘dirt poor’ and started running ‘because of poverty’. The athlete was the seventh of 10 children, and would run five kilometres to and from school with her brother Martin.
While in secondary school, Tirop met a man, 15 years her senior, named Ibrahim Rotich.
He offered to become her coach, and she accepted – despite his apparent lack of experience – Tirop started winning races, picking up the title of African Cross Country Championship and World Athletics Cross Country Championships.
She then dropped out of school, against her parents wishes. When they complained to local authorities she fled town with Rotich – moving to Iten.
In 2016, when she was just 20, the pair got married. Rotich discouraged her from telling anyone, even her parents.
According to a neighbour in Iten, Rotich was controlling and forced her to get an abortion and wouldn’t let her leave the house alone.
‘We were neighbours, but he did not permit her to mingle with the other ladies,’ Martha Akello, another runner, told the New Yorker. ‘He had to accompany her to training. It’s like she was living in prison.’
In September 2021, Tirop met with Martin and their sister Ever, where she told them she wanted to leave Rotich, alleging he was abusive and having an affair. Rotich then arrived in a rage and told police had stolen his car.
Professional runner Edith Muthoni (pictured) was allegedly shot in the head after a violent argument with her boyfriend, Kennedy Nyamu. She was 27
In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee (pictured) was found dead in Iten, allegedly having been killed by her boyfriend
Tirop then went to stay with her parents, where she said her husband had hit her and threatened to burn the house down if she left him.
Shortly after Tirop travelled to Germany for Adizero: Road to Records, an event organised by Adidas. She won the 10,000 metre race and broke the world record.
Before her trip, she’d returned to Iten to resume her training. Joseph Cheromei, who ran the camp, put her into a safe house.
Cheromei added to the New Yorker that he often saw female runners being exploited by their partners.
‘The athletes win a race, the man needs to own the earnings, the woman refuses, and the problem arises. It affects the ladies’ performance.’
After the race in Germany, Tirop returned to the camp and agreed to go home with Rotich. Her sister Eve went with them, leaving the next day when the family went to Nairobi.
The next day, she was found stabbed and beaten to death in her home. Rotich had fled, leaving a note allegedly confessing the crime. In an an affidavit he admitted to killing Tirop, but pleaded not guilty to her murder.
Instead he claimed he was provoked into killing her because he believed she was having an affair with her childhood friend.
‘My late wife received a call which she put on speakerphone and had a very demeaning conversation about me with her lover which took me to the edge,’ he wrote.
‘Kenya has lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track,’ Athletics Kenya said.
Cheptegei, 33, suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body in Sunday’s brutal attack that was allegedly carried out by her ex-boyfriend, according to medical officials
Cheptegei won the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand in 2022
Ndiema (pictured), the ex-boyfriend of marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, has been pictured for the first time
At Tirop’s funeral, which took place on what would have been her 26th birthday, her best friend and fellow runner Violah Lagat gave a speech slamming gender-based violence.
‘Today I am here because of one issue: this gender-based violence issue. I am standing here because something has to be done. And it has to be done now, not tomorrow, not any other day, it has to start today.
‘We are here because we are putting our sister to rest but we are also here to raise our voices. We need to be heard as women, we need people to understand that we are not tools, we are not anyone’s property.
‘Men, understand this, we are athletes but we are also someone’s children. Please respect us, please love us, please value our hard work…
‘If you are not going to do anything for me, for my sister, for my mother and the generation to come, please go home.’
Speaking to the Olympics website, two-time Boston Half Marathon champion Joan Chelimo explained: ‘Many of the female runners being abused by their coaches are being taken advantage of, first because they are young, second because they don’t know their rights, and coaches try to manipulate athletes by giving them maybe a pair of shoes or connecting them with agents. Remember, these girls are from really humble backgrounds.’
Just six months after Tirop was killed, another female athlete was murdered in Iten.
Damaris Muthee Mutua was 28 and a mother of one. The athlete was born in Kenya but competed for Bahrain – but trained in Iten. A male Ethiopian runner with whom she was in a relationship was charged with murder.
‘She was an upcoming road runner. People would describe her as someone with very good discipline,’ Elias Makori, managing editor for sport at Nation Media Group, told BBC Sport at the time.
‘Earlier this month, she was third in a very tough half-marathon race in Angola. She was found dead just when her career on the road was picking up.’
Athletics Kenya said it was ‘extremely grieved’ by her death. ‘It is another case of a life cut short and a talent washed down the drain considering the achievements Damaris had made in her career,’ a statement from the body added.
In 2014, Lucy Kabuu, another runner from Iten, was sued by her ex-husband for control of half of her properties.
More recently, Olympic gold medallist Vivian Cheruiyot told Kenyan paper, the National her husband had ‘taken control of her properties’.
One in three women in Kenya has experienced gender-based violence, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, while domestic violence is seen as a minor offence in the country.
‘We still have cases of police stations turning away victims,’ Sarah Ochwada, a lawyer who handles domestic-violence cases involving athletes, told the New Yorker.
Meanwhile, Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said Cheptegei’s former partner Dickson Ndiema had bought a can of petrol, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement on Sunday.
Ndiema, who was pictured earlier today for the first time, was also burned, and was being treated at the same hospital. Medical officials said Ndiema was still in the intensive care unit with 30% burns, but was ‘improving and stable’.