The former partner of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who is accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, has died from burns sustained during the attack, the Kenyan hospital where he was being treated said on Tuesday.

Cheptegei, 33, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75 per cent of her body in the September 1 attack and died four days later.

Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7:50 p.m. (1650 GMT) on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died.

“He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at said. Local media reported that he had suffered 30 per cent burns when he assaulted Cheptegei as she was returning home from church with her children.

Cheptegei, who finished 44th in Paris, is the third elite sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Her death has put the spotlight on domestic violence in the East African country, particularly within its running community.

Ndiema was admitted at the Moi Referral Hospital in the western Eldoret city for burns covering 30 per cent of his body. Ndiema is alleged to have sustained the injuries after setting on fire Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who died last Thursday with 80 per cent of burns on her body.

The hospital spokesperson, Owen Menach, said on Tuesday that the hospital would issue a statement later but confirmed that the patient had died.

Rights groups say female athletes in Kenya, where many international runners train in the high-altitude highlands, are at a high risk of exploitation and violence at the hands of men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.

Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarrelled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief. Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.

Cheptegei’s parents said their daughter bought land in the Trans Nzoia county to be near Kenya’s many athletic training centres. The athlete’s father, Joseph Cheptegei, told reporters last week that Ndiema, his daughter’s former boyfriend, was stalking and threatening her and the family had informed police.

He said he wanted justice and lamented that the suspect was not being guarded at his hospital bed and expressed concern that he might escape.

“Justice really would have been for him to sit in jail and think about what he had done. This is not positive news whatsoever,” said Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for survivors of domestic violence in Kenya’s athletic community.

“The shock of Rebecca’s death is still fresh,” Cheptoo said.

Cheptoo co-founded Tirop’s Angels in memory of Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s highly competitive athletics scene, who was found dead in her home in the town of Iten in October 2021, with multiple stab wounds to the neck.

Ibrahim Rotich, Tirop’s husband, was charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty. The case is ongoing.

Nearly 34 per cent of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 years have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022, with married women at particular risk. The 2022 survey found that 41 per cent of married women had faced violence.

Globally, a woman is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes, according to a 2023 UN Woman study.

• A Reuters / An AP report