THE STANDARD - Douglas Wakiihuri pioneered Kenya´s marathon dominance in the global stage in the 1980s.He won world title in 1987 in Rome and clinched Olympic silver the following year in Seoul, South Korea. He added Commonwealth Games title in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1990 and a World Marathon Cup in Hiroshima around the same period. In between, he won London Marathon twice.
A real hero who blazed the trail for a country whose athletes have done what its envoys and politicians can’t ever dream of achieving. My thoughts are today with Wakiihuri, not because Martin Lel and Samuel Wanjiru are lining up at the Flora London Marathon to perpetuate the legacy set by Wakiihuri there, but because of the problems that are bedevilling a lucrative half-marathon he helped bring to Kenya (mzungo.org reported).
His bid to give back to our society what athletics has done to him, an obligation every successful athlete should inculcate in his mind as he or she climbs the success pedestal, is being muddled in endless wrangling in the Nairobi AK branch.
Negotiated successfuly
Through his connections in Japan, he negotiated and succeeded in bringing the Sotokoto Nairobi Marathon to be run as a half-marathon on May 24, but will be elevated to full marathon next year.
It boasts a war chest of up to $100,000 (Sh8m), with the elite winners taking home Sh1.2m. It is to be run inside the Nairobi National Park, and, for good measure, has the full backing of the Kenya Wildlife Service. Up to 200 Japanese tourists are to attend, with indirect benefit to the economy.
Everyone who care for sport must support this race. Like his fellow athletes who have lobbied for corporate support and organised lucrative competitions, Wakiihuri is on the right track.
Raging Undercurrent
But the Sotokoto Nairobi Marathon seems to only generate controversy, which seems to emerge from the dichotomy in the Nairobi AK branch, which, after months of raging undercurrent, has now burst in the open, exposing its underbelly. All officials of the branch want to be in the organising committee.
They are not happy with his vice-chairman Robert Ouko and secretary Mike Kariuki running the show. This reminds me of the vicious wrangles that preceded the organisation of 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa.
Some people in AK were not happy with the composition of some key positions in the main organising committee. If that could put these wrangles to rest, I submit that it be done pronto so that the event can go on without any further hitches.
Keen observers, however, know this matter of Nairobi AK branch and the Sotokoto Marathon is only the ears of an hippo. It wasn’t just about Nairobi AK versus Sotokoto Marathon battle for control of the purse strings. Deep-seated differences exist between Ouko, the technical director of the marathon and senior vice-chairman of the branch, and Barnaba Korir, branch chairman, who is also a powerful player in Athletics Kenya pecking order.
Problems in Nairobi are revolving around the two centres of power. Both are erudite (they attended American colleges) and well-heeled in matters athletics. Ouko is an Olympic champion, who has run athletics in Kenya and a retired senior civil servant.
Korir was a distance runner, who was also a senior employee of a key parastatal. He is now an athletes’ agent, boasting in his stable Olympic champion, Pamela Jelimo.
Whoever knows both gentlemen well will understand why there are problems in Nairobi and, unfortunately now, this marathon. Wakiihuri and his Japanese benefactors had better move fast to settle this matter now so that the event goes on smoothly.
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