The family of the Ugandan athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei, has accused Kenyan police of failing to respond to warnings that her life was in danger. The Ugandan marathon runner was doused with petrol and set on fire at her home in western Kenya - allegedly by her former boyfriend. Also in the programme: France goes from its youngest to its oldest prime minister, he's former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, but can he corral a divided parliament? And the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is in Haiti to urge a timetable for new elections. (Photo: Uganda's Rebecca Cheptegei in action during the women's marathon final August 2023. Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez)
Hello.
Welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
We're coming to you live from London.
I'm Paul Henley.
In East Africa, women's rights groups have called for urgent action to protect women being abused by male partners following the death of the ugandan Olympic marathon runner, Rebecca Cheptoge.
The 33 year old, who is a mother of two young girls, died four days after allegedly having been doused in petrol and set alight by her ex boyfriend where she lived and trained in Kenya.
Her murder comes two years after the murders of two kenyan women runners, also at the hands of their partners.
A UN report reveals a hugely disproportionate number of killings of women by men in african countries.
In a national survey in Kenya in 2022, over a third of women said they had experience of physical violence.
I had been speaking to Uganda's minister for sport, Peter Ogwang, who gave me his reaction to Rebecca Cheptoge's death.
First of all, we really want to begin by sending our condolences to the family of Rebecca for that untimely death.
I was in Paris with Rebecca and the team for all the days they were winning Paris for Olympic Games.
I returned with them back home during that very send off for them to get back to their respective homes.
Rebecca got my number and she talked to me that she had a family problem.
As a minister of sports, I had a plan of going to visit their families because I had personally seen the performance of my daughters, which of representing my country was not good.
So I had come up with a plan to go and visit their families so that I understand what pressures they are facing for Rebecca.
Of course, it's unfortunate that she has died when I've not met that plan of mine.
But I'll do it to the rest who have remains.
Tell me, has East Africa in general, has Uganda in particular got a problem with gender based violence?
That problem, I want to be honest, those challenges are there because we live in communities where such practices still are there.