The late Dickson Ndiema’s sisters Naomi Kiprop (left) and Kelen Marangach at their home in Kabiyet Village in Moiben, Uasin Gishu on September 11, 2024.
The elder sister of Dickson Ndiema, who died at the Moi Teaching Referral Hospital in Eldoret on Monday, said her late brother loved Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei.
Speaking to Nation Sport on Wednesday at her home in Kabiyet village in Moiben, Uasin Gishu County, Naomi Kiprop revealed that the two were more than just boyfriend and girlfriend.
Ndiema succumbed to respiratory failure as a result of severe airway burns and sepsis after he was admitted to the facility with severe burns resulting from a domestic violence incident.
He is believed to have attacked his ex-lover, Ugandan marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei at her home in Trans Nzoia over an unresolved land dispute.
He allegedly ambushed the marathoner as she returned home, before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight.
Cheptegei, who sustained more than 80 per cent burns, died last Thursday at the same hospital due to multiple organ failure, while Ndiema suffered over 30 per cent burns.
“When my brother fell in love with Cheptegei, I knew about it and we got along well with her. I was shocked to hear people say they were just boyfriend and girlfriend. They stayed together as husband and wife and I would always check up on them,” Kiprop said Wednesday.
“They lived well and even bought land and started building their house. I was happy because my brother was making strides in his life despite a tragic upbringing," recalled a teary Kiprop.
She was shocked at the tragic incident because the two would always contact her whenever there was a problem. Cheptegei will be buried on Saturday in eastern Uganda.
Kiprop called on well-wishers to help them clear the hospital bills and bury her kin.
She revealed that Ndiema was the last born in a family of eight that lived in Masek, Mt Elgon in Bungoma County.
Their father, Jackson Marangach, died in 1999 due to cancer, before their mother, Grace Marangach, and two other siblings, lost their lives during the 2007 land clashes.
Due to the unrest in the region, their elder brother, James Kapsoi, who later died in 2016, relocated with the remaining siblings to Kolongei in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County.
It is here that Ndiema joined Buala Primary School,but dropped out at Standard Seven, before joining athletics to fend for his life and started assisting athletes as a physiotherapist for a small fee.
He married his first wife, Winy, with whom they bore two children, but she left him due to poverty. Ndiema tied the knot again to Ugandan Ruth Cheptoyek and they had one child before she also walked out of the union due to financial constraints.
“Life was really tough for my brother as both women walked out on him, but he kept on working hard to make ends meet having been left with the three kids. I took in the children despite my struggles,” she recalls. Ndiema is survived by his three children.
