CALL it the result of patriarchal culture or whatever, but some men think they own women’s bodies and can do whatever they please with them. They are narcissistic, self-absorbed, and dangerous. That was clearly the case with Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the criminal who got in the news around the world recently after murdering his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Cheptegei, Olympic marathon runner, Uganda’s national record holder in mountain running, and former world champion.
Cheptegei was the breadwinner of an extended family comprising her parents, a dozen siblings and her two daughters aged 9 and 11, and had reportedly gone to the police at least three times this year to lodge complaints over threats and physical abuse by Marangach, but beyond warning the felon to stay away from her home, the police had reportedly not done much to protect her. In February, he had allegedly beaten her up and broke her phone. On August 31, neighbours reported hearing arguments after she returned from church with her daughters.
On September 1, following a dispute over certain properties, Marangach attacked Cheptegei, a member of Uganda’s armed forces, with petrol at her residence in Endebess, Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. The ensuing burns covered 80 percent of her body, and she died following multiple organ failures at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret on September 5. On September 9, Marangach also died in the same hospital from the burns sustained during the inferno, which covered 40.
