The murder of an Olympic marathon runner has "highlighted a horrifying trend" in Kenya, said The Sunday Times.

Rebecca Cheptegei (pictured above), who came 44th in last month's Paris Games and was Uganda's marathon record holder, 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 their washing line.

Ndiema was admitted to the same hospital after accidentally setting himself on fire and has since died of his injuries. But the killings of successful female athletes, who accumulated wealth while challenging traditional gender roles, have become "a grimly familiar occurrence" in Kenya.

Cheptegei, 33, is at least the third elite female athlete killed by a male partner or ex-partner in Kenya since 2021, said CBC. Agnes Tirop, a 25-year-old Olympic long-distance runner and two-time world championship bronze medallist, was stabbed to death in her home in Iten in 2021. Her husband Ibrahim Rotich was charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty. He was released on bail and is still awaiting trial. The night before, 27-year-old runner Edith Muthoni had been murdered with a machete in Nairobi.

The following year Kenyan-born runner Damaris Mutua, 28, was found strangled in Iten. Her partner fled and is still wanted for her murder. "We are failing our women," said Zaina Kombo of Amnesty International Kenya.

Beyond the athletic community, more than 500 Kenyan women were killed between 2016 and 2023 – nearly two-thirds by their partners or ex-partners, according to Africa Data Hub. This year thousands of women all over Kenya protested against the "epidemic of femicide" after a series of gruesome murders.

Local rights groups have called on the government to declare a national emergency and define femicide as a crime distinct from murder, said the BBC. Despite Kenya's already "robust laws against gender-based violence, most perpetrators go unpunished".