KAMPALA: Ugandans on Saturday (Sep 14) paid tributes to Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after her partner set her on fire in Kenya, lastly burying her close to her household village.
The 33-year-old, who debuted this summer season within the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, succumbed to extreme burns final week after being attacked by Kenyan Dickson Ndiema Marangach.
The brutal assault shocked the East African area and prompted a worldwide outpouring of tributes, with activists condemning one other act of gender-based violence in Kenya.
On Saturday morning, residents, officers and kinfolk waited within the chilly morning gentle to pay their respects within the village of Bukwo, some 380 kilometres (240 miles) northeast of Uganda’s capital Kampala.
“We’re extraordinarily saddened,” mentioned her estranged husband Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters.
“As a father it has been very troublesome,” he advised AFP, explaining he had not been capable of break the information to their kids.
“Slowly we’ll inform them the reality.”
The service to honour Cheptegei, a sergeant within the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), began round 10:00 am (0700 GMT), with officers and kinfolk gathering on the native council workplace.
The coffin, swathed within the Ugandan flag, was saluted by officers from the UPDF who carried her physique into the room overlooking the distant rolling hills of her childhood.
