I saw athlete running towards me on fire after attack, neighbour tells BBC
Outside the home where Rebecca Cheptegei lived, flowers had been placed on the grass, which was scorched as the runner attempted to extinguish the flames engulfing her.
The 33-year-old Olympic athlete died on Thursday from injuries sustained after her former partner allegedly poured petrol on her and set her ablaze days earlier while she was at home with her two daughters.
“I was inside when I heard people screaming ‘fire.’ When I came outside, I saw Rebecca running toward my house on fire, shouting ‘help me,’” Agnes Barabara, Ms. Cheptegei’s immediate neighbor, told the BBC through tears.
“As I went to get water and call for help, her attacker returned and poured more petrol on her. He too was burned and ran off toward the garden to try to extinguish the flames. We then rushed to help Rebecca.”
“I have never seen anyone burn alive before. I couldn’t eat for days after that incident.”
“She was a wonderful neighbor, and just recently she shared some maize she had harvested with me.”
Police are investigating the death as a murder, with her ex-partner identified as the prime suspect. Local officials noted that the two had been in conflict over a small piece of land where Ms. Cheptegei lived, with the case still pending resolution.
He will face charges in court once he is discharged from the hospital, where he is being treated for injuries sustained during the incident.
“We have opened a file, and the investigation is progressing,” said Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer Kennedy Apindi to the BBC.
Ms. Cheptegei’s mother, Agnes, remembered her daughter as “always obedient as a child, and very kind and cheerful throughout her life.”
Emmanual Kimutai, a friend and neighbor who attended school with Ms. Cheptegei, described her as a “very exciting” and “determined” person.
“Even in primary school she was already doing very well in athletics, she was our champion,” Mr Kimutai said.
The Olympian was born on the Kenyan side of the Kenya-Uganda border, but chose to cross over and represent Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she did not get a breakthrough in Kenya.
When she started getting into athletics, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 and had risen to sergeant rank. Her career included competing in the Olympics in Paris this year. Although she placed 44th in the marathon, people in her home area called her “champion”.
She lived in Chepkum, a village in Kenya about 25km (15 miles) from the border with Uganda, in a rural area whose main economic activity is farming. Residents also tend to cattle and it is common to see cows, goats, and sheep grazing outside homes. The wider area, called Trans-Nzoia County, is well known as Kenya’s biggest producer of maize, which is the main ingredient for the country’s staple food.
Locals at a shopping center near her house spoke fondly about a woman they sometimes waved at as she trained along the road whenever she was not in competition or training in Uganda. Kind and humble were the words often mentioned by people there.
