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NewsTranscript
00:00Full national honours for a national icon.
00:04Rebecca Cheptege's coffin is draped with the flag of Uganda.
00:08Just weeks ago she ran under this flag at the Paris Olympics.
00:12The marathoner had just returned to her Kenya training base
00:16when her ex-partner doused her in petrol and set her on fire.
00:20Rebecca died days later from her devastating burns.
00:24It is really a sad moment in Uganda, Athletics Uganda.
00:29And all of us friends,
00:33as we went to Paris with Rebecca,
00:38we really felt it.
00:41The 33-year-old is survived by two daughters and a family crushed by grief.
00:49As Uganda and Kenya mourn Rebecca Cheptege,
00:52her murder is bringing up painful memories of the recent killings
00:55of two other elite athletes in Kenya, Agnes Tirup and Damaris Mutua.
01:00They were both killed by intimate partners.
01:03Activists say high-level athletes can be targeted because of their financial success
01:08by men seeking to take control of their money and assets.
01:12Companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma and all those brands
01:16that these young athletes represent when they are juniors to elite level
01:22should have some sort of mechanism on how to protect the girls.
01:26It's really huge. It's a pandemic. It's the whole of Africa.
01:30Government figures show at least a third of girls and women in Kenya
01:34have experienced violence at the hands of domestic partners.
01:37Organisations that help girls and women to escape abusive situations
01:41are demanding action from the government
01:44to stamp out the epidemic of gender-based violence.