Joseph Cheptegei (left) and Agnes Cheptegei (right), the parents of the late Ugandan marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei, speak to the media at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret on September 05, 2024.
Rebecca Cheptegei, Ugandan women’s marathon record holder, who died after being set alight by her ex-boyfriend, will be given a soldier’s farewell when she is buried at her father’s home at Kapkoros in Bukwo District Uganda on Saturday.
The fallen Olympian was a sergeant in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces. Yesterday, Uganda Athletics Federation Secretary General Beatrice Ayikoru said that preparations for the burial were almost complete.
“We are waiting for the body tomorrow (Friday, September 13) from Eldoret and she will be buried on Saturday, September 14. and the UPDF is expected to take charge because she was one of them,” said Ayikoru on phone from Kampala in Uganda.
The family agreed to lay her to rest at their ancestral home though she had a home in Kenya.
Burial plans
“We have settled on the burial plans and I’m going to bury my daughter at our home in Bukwo,” Mzee Joseph Cheptegei said on Thursday, September 12.
However, Nation Sport has learnt that the first husband Simon Aiyeko, an athlete who sired two children with Cheptegei, wants to bury the fallen marathoner.
“It has been a big issue because both families are claiming the body of the marathoner and we are waiting for the final decision today (Thursday),” said Ezekiel Chepkorom, a marathoner and friend to Aiyeko.
Kenyan-born Romanian marathoner Joan Chelimo, who is also a trustee at the Tirop’s Angels Foundation, said that they planned to attend the burial in Uganda as one way of supporting the family and the sporting fraternity in Uganda.
“Cheptegei is one of us and as a foundation, we hope this will be the last case we are hearing of and the community needs to come out and talk about the evils that are happening,” said Chelimo.
Initially, the family of Cheptegei had planned to pick the body of Olympian yesterday at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital morgue but the doctors advised the family to do so as late as possible as it would deteriorate faster in the state it was on.
The family will now move the body Friday morning for a brief stop at their home in Endebess in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County before heading to Kapkoros in Bukwo, Uganda.
Cheptegei suffered 80 per cent burns after allegedly being doused in petrol by Dickson Ndiema and set ablaze.
She was admitted at the Moi Teaching Referral Hospital Intensive Care Unit on September 2 where she was cared for before suffering multiple organ failure leading to her death three days later.
Later, the government of Kenya through the Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum announced that they will airlift Cheptegei to Nairobi for specialised treatment which was not to be after she succumbed to the injuries last week on Thursday in what the doctors said that it was due to multiple organ failure.
She left two kids aged 11 and nine years. Her ex-boyfriend who was also admitted at the MTRH with 41 percent burns also succumbed on Monday evening.
