In the last three years, a number of female athletes have been murdered in situations where their husbands or boyfriends were suspects of the attacks.
Below are the names of known athletes who were killed by their husbands or boyfriends.
1. Rebecca Cheptegei
Distraught Residents, officials and relatives waited in the cold morning light to pay their respects in the village of Bukwo, some 380 km northeast of Uganda’s capital Kampala for the burial of Rebecca Cheptegei
“We are extremely saddened,” said her estranged husband Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters.
“As a father, it has been very difficult,” he told AFP, explaining he had not been able to break the news to their children. “Slowly we will tell them the truth, he added.
The service to honour Cheptegei, a sergeant in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, started around 10:00 a.m., with officials and relatives gathering at the local council office.
The athlete from Uganda, who has been living in Kenya was allegedly burned with Petroleum fuel by her ex boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema on 3rd September 2024.
Ndiema poured petrol on Cheptegei’s body before setting her ablaze in broad day light following a land dispute.
Following the attack, Cheptegei aquired 80% burns and most of her organs failed.
Sadly, the mother of 3 died on September 5 while receiving treatment as plans were underway to airlift her to Nairobi for specialised treatment.
Cheptegei was also a military officer in Uganda and was buried with military honours in Uganda on Saturday, September 14 at Bukwo village, Uganda.
2. Damaris Muthee
Long distance runner, Damaris Muthee Mutua was allegedly killed by her boyfriend through strangulation in 2022.
The 28-year-old was born in Kenya but competed for Bahrain. At the time, she was the second female athlete to be killed in Iten in a year.
Her husband denied murder charges.
Mutua’s body was found in “a state of decomposition” in the Rift Valley town of Iten, local police chief Tom Makori told the AFP news agency.
Mutua’s boyfriend was training at the same high-altitude centre as her.
“The suspect called a friend whom they were training together and informed him that he has killed a girlfriend and the body was in the house,” Mr Makori told the Reuters news agency.
Mutua competed for Kenya as a junior athlete but later switched to run for Bahrain.
3. Agnes Tirop
Agnes Jebet Tirop was born on 23rd October 1995 and died on 13th October 2021.
He was a Kenyan professional long-distance runner and won bronze medals in the 10,000 metres at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships.
At the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Tirop became the second-youngest ever gold medallist in the women’s race, after Zola Budd.
At the time of her death in 2021, she was the world-record holder in the 10 kilometres women’s-only event.
Agnes was found dead in her home in Iten, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, on 13 October 2021.
She had multiple stab wounds in the neck and abdomen, uthorities believing a domestic altercation had occurred and Tirop was stabbed, as they also found her car windows had been shattered.
A search operation was launched for Tirop’s husband, Ibrahim Rotich, when he went missing after calling his family crying and asking for God’s forgiveness for something he had done.
He was then involved in a lengthy high-speed chase, trying to flee the country, and ultimately rammed his getaway vehicle into a truck near Mombasa.
He was subsequently arrested and questioned about Tirop’s death.
Rotich was remanded for two years while awaiting trial for Tirop’s murder but was granted release on bail in November 2023 to await trial.
Tirop was buried in her hometown of Kapnyamisa, Nandi County.
Protests Against Femicide
Women’s groups in Kenya took to the streets to call for long overdue action to tackle rampant gender-based violence in the country after the death of Rebecca Cheptegei at the hands of her partner.
“This is Femicide,” Njeri Migwi, the founder of Usikimye, an organisation that fights gender-based violence, posted on X after Cheptegei’s death.
“First and foremost, the government needs to take a stance,” she told AFP on Wednesday,
“because the government doesn’t really do anything about it.”
“Most of this violence, gender-based violence, is not viewed as a crime,” she added.
“The patriarchal attitudes that we have in this country are abhorrent. “She said fraught situations were exacerbated when women became the breadwinners, often providing for their immediate and extended families, as in the case of Cheptegei. “If you look at it, it’s financial violence.”
Shocking Number Of Femicide Cases
Statistics on the number of victims of gender-based violence in Kenya vary widely, which campaigners say masks the true scale of the problem.
In 2022, Kenya recorded 725 women died in gender-related killings, the highest since 2015, according to data collated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Femicide Count Kenya, which pulls data from local media, said 152 women were killed in 2023.
“This staggering number only represents cases reported in the media — the true count is likely much higher,” the organisation said on its website.
