Olympics champions tells Ugandan athletes in Kenya to go back home after Rebecca Cheptegei’s killing

Olympics 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei has told all Ugandan athletes currently training and living in Kenya to consider returning home for their safety.

Cheptegei feels Ugandan athletes are increasingly becoming unsafe in the neighbouring Kenya following the tragic death of Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who succumbed to severe burn wounds, following an attack by her ex-lover.

The athlete, who represented Uganda in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, was doused with petrol and later set a blaze after a disagreement with her former boyfriend, sustaining nearly 80 per cent burns on her body, and did not survive the attack.

Tears flowed as athletes, dignitaries, and mourners paid tribute to Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, tragically killed in Kenya.

“All Ugandan athletes in Kenya should come back home. We don’t want to come back here again for a similar function,” Cheptegei said at Rebecca’s burial ceremony on Saturday, as per Uganda’s

Rebecca, who was laid to rest in her home district of Bukwo, Eastern Uganda, had been living and training in Kenya but according to her family, she had been in a toxic relationship with her ex-lover Dickson Ndiema, who already threatened to kill her early this year.

Her burial ceremony was attended by local leaders and her fellow athletes as well as Kenya’s Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who admitted that the country let Rebecca down.

Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei's ex-boyfriend dies following a violent incident that also led to her own tragic death.

“We are guilty as a government but the community is also guilty. They knew what Cheptegei was going through with her boyfriend but no one reported it,” said Murkomen.

Rebecca is the second Ugandan athlete to be killed in Kenya following the stabbing of Benjamin Kiplagat, who represented Uganda in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2012 London Olympics, in 2023.

A number of Ugandan athletes live and train in Kenya with Joshua Cheptegei himself having trained in Iten, Elegeyo Marakwet county until 2015.

The father of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has blamed police in Trans Nzoia for not arresting the situation early enough before his daughter was killed in cruel fashion last week.