3 days Ago
The murder of a Ugandan marathon runner returning from the Paris Olympics has "highlighted a horrifying trend in Kenya", said The Sunday Times . Rebecca Cheptegei, 33, died of burns last week in Eldoret, western Kenya. Dickson Ndiema, her ex-partner, had "poured petrol over her and set her alight" as she and her young daughters were collecting clothes from a washing line outside her home.
Ndiema was admitted to the same hospital after accidentally setting himself on fire, and has since died from his injuries. But killings of successful female athletes have become "a grimly familiar occurrence" in Kenya. Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber.
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Sign up Prizewinners become prey Cheptegei, who came 44th in last month's Paris Games and was Uganda's marathon record holder, had bought property and land in the Rift Valley. The region's high altitude and traditional running culture have "helped to produce an army of medal-winning long-distance runners", said the paper. And women, whose role was "once limited to minding chickens and children", have emerged as "big local breadwinners".
They have become "prey for unscrupulous suitors offering themselves as coaches, husbands or both". "Women today dream of becoming top world athletes and..
. Harriet Marsden, The Week UK.
