Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan athlete, has died at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, where she was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

MTRH acting Director Dr Owen Menach confirmed she died last night after all her organs failed.

"Unfortunately, we lost her last night after all her organs failed," Dr Menach said, adding that the hospital would provide a detailed report on the matter later in the day.

The Ugandan Olympic athlete who lived in Kenya was attacked and set on fire by a man believed to be her boyfriend and suffered burns on 80 per cent of her body.

Police said the late Cheptegei was attacked on Sunday at her house in Endebess, western Trans Nzoia County situated along the Kenya-Uganda border.

Trans-Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said Monday that Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the Kenyan man reported to be Cheptegei's boyfriend, bought a jerrycan of gas, poured it on her and set her ablaze following a disagreement.

The 33-year-old Cheptegei had been at church with her two children Sunday afternoon before the attack happened and according to a report filed by a local chief, Marangach snuck into her home while she was out.

The alleged attacker also sustained serious burns, local police chief Jeremiah ole Kosiom told journalists.

“The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her,” Mr Kosiom was quoted as saying.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a piece of land in Trans Nzoia county and built a house, to be near Kenya's many athletic training centres.

A report filed by a local administrator said the two had been wrangling over the piece of land.

Ms Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the recent Paris Olympics.

She also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

The attack on Cheptegei is the latest violent assault against a noted female runner in Kenya in a short span of time.

Kenyan long distance runner Agnes Jebet Tirop was killed in October 2021, just months after she competed in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and finished fourth in the women's 5,000-metre final. She was also a two-time, 10,000-metre bronze medallist at the World Athletics Championships.

The 25-year-old was found stabbed to death in her home, in Iten, a hub for distance running training centres.

Police arrested her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, in the coastal city of Mombasa following a manhunt. Authorities allege he was trying to flee the country.

He later pleaded not guilty to her murder. He was released on bail in November 2023.

Her death sparked an outcry and led to the formation of a group called Tirop's Angels, which seeks to educate about and eradicate gender-based violence.

In April 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee Mutua was found dead near the town of Iten, at the home of Ethiopian runner Koki Foi, who was reported to be her boyfriend.

A postmortem report stated that the 28-year-old was strangled. Police believe Foi fled the country.