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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWarning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing <\/b><\/i><\/p>\n “I was in the house and heard people screaming ‘fire’,” Agnes Barabara, the immediate neighbour of Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, tearfully recalls.<\/b><\/p>\n “When I came out, I saw Rebecca running towards my house on fire, shouting: help me.”<\/p>\n Outside the house in north-west Kenya where the 33-year-old athlete lived, flowers have been placed on grass that was charred as she rolled on the ground to put out the flames engulfing her. <\/p>\n Ms Cheptegei died on Thursday from injuries sustained when her former partner allegedly doused her with petrol and set her ablaze days earlier while at home with her two daughters. <\/p>\n \u201cAs I went to look for water and started calling out for help, her assailant appeared again and doused more petrol on her,” continues Ms Barabara.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then he too got burned and he ran off towards the garden to try to put it out. We then went to help Rebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Barabara says she had never seen anyone \u201cburn alive\u201d before, and couldn\u2019t eat for days after the incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cShe was a very good neighbour and just recently she shared with me maize she\u2019d harvested,\u201d adds the neighbour.<\/p>\n Police are treating the death as a murder, with Ms Cheptegei’s ex-partner named by police as the main suspect.<\/p>\n Local administrators said the two had been in conflict about the small piece of land where Ms Cheptegei lived, with the case awaiting resolution.<\/p>\n He will be arraigned in court on charges once he is out of hospital, where he continues to recover from injuries he sustained during the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have opened a file, investigations are at an advanced stage,\u201d said divisional criminal investigations officer Kennedy Apindi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Cheptegei’s mother Agnes said her daughter “was always obedient as a child, and very kind and jovial all through her life”. <\/p>\n Emmanual Kimutai, a friend and neighbour who attended school with Ms Cheptegei, described her as a “very exciting” and “determined” person. <\/p>\n \u201cEven in primary school she was already doing very well in athletics, she was our champion,” Mr Kimutai said. <\/p>\n The Olympian was born on the Kenyan side of the Kenya-Uganda border, but chose to cross over and represent Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she did not get a breakthrough in Kenya. <\/p>\n When she started getting into athletics, she joined the Uganda People\u2019s Defence Forces in 2008 and rose to sergeant rank.<\/p>\n Her career included competing in the Olympics in Paris this year. Although she came 44th in the marathon, people in her home area called her “champion”. <\/p>\n She lived in Chepkum, a village in Kenya about 25km (15 miles) from the border with Uganda, in a rural area whose main economic activity is farming.<\/p>\n Residents also tend to cattle and it is common to see cows, goats, and sheep grazing outside homes.<\/p>\n The wider area, called Trans-Nzoia county, is known as Kenya\u2019s biggest producer of maize, which is the main ingredient for the country\u2019s staple food.<\/p>\n Locals at a shopping centre near her house spoke fondly about a woman they sometimes waved at as she trained along the road whenever she was not in competition or training in Uganda. <\/p>\n Kind and humble were the words often mentioned by people there. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n While celebrated as an athlete, her personal life was in turmoil. Her former classmate said she did not “have peace” due to the conflict with her ex-partner that began last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThey used to live together but began falling out last year because of money,” her brother Jacob recalled. “He asked my sister: what do you do with all the money you make?” <\/p>\n Police told the BBC that the two had previously reported domestic disputes at different stations – which they withdrew. <\/p>\n As Ms Cheptegei\u2019s family waits for justice, they continue to prepare her final journey. She will be laid to rest on 14 September at their ancestral home in Bukwo, Uganda.<\/p>\n The Ugandan is the third athlete to be killed in Kenya in the last three years, where intimate partners are named as the main suspects by police.<\/p>\n Athlete-led gender-based violence activist group, Tirop\u2019s Angels, said the trend must end.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is heart-breaking is her children witnessed their mother\u2019s attack,” Joan Chelimo, a co-founder of Tirop\u2019s Angels said, fighting back tears.<\/p>\n \u201cThis violence against athletes must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the <\/i>BBC Action Line<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Alamy<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Rebecca's](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/df97\/live\/43d3f4f0-6d45-11ef-b3d8-434e23cb19a9.jpg.webp\")
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