Kenya: We Are All to Blame for Wanjiru Death

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Al Kags

18 May 2011

opinion

There is no other simple way of saying this: the death of gold medalist, Samuel Wanjiru is a tragedy of great proportions for Kenya and for Nyahururu – certainly one that is difficult to put into coherent text. It wasn’t a tragedy particularly because of the way that he died (tragic as that is), or because he was one of Kenya’s top athletes at one point.

It was a huge tragedy because Samuel was 24 years old, barely a man and because in that time, he did not experience the kind of exposure and experiences that a man of his success should have been. Wanjiru, a man of humble beginnings, did not see the world – even though he could well have afforded to. Saddest yet, he did not influence his world – the locality that he lived in, the young people that he grew up with, the old folk who watched him sprout into a champion.

This is a big loss for Kenya because there is gone a young man who had all the potential of inspiring a generation – not just with his success on the track, but with the way he handled his success – to make even greater success for his people, for his nation.

As his mother cries at the loss of her son, we must cry for the loss of a hero who could have been. We must accept – each and every one of us – an indictment for the part that we contributed to his death.

We must ask ourselves what should have been different? At the core, Wanjiru grew up in the rural areas and he had little exposure to the high life – in fact, he grew up very modest circumstances. Then he came to the city and went to out of Kenya and brought home the gold. At that point then did the rain start beating him. He simply wasn’t prepared to handle his new fame, status and money.

When the National Athletics Association is pushing our athletes to bring home the gold (which tends to come with tens of millions of shillings), how much are they prepared for that possible success? There is a common saying that one would only manage the amount of money that one is accustomed to – and therefore, if you give a million shillings to someone who is accustomed to managing a thousand shillings, then they will whittle it down quickly back to the Sh1,000 they are accustomed to.

How has society prepared our boys to be true men – who value work and who see their roles as the caretakers, the protectors of society? Too many of our young men are aspiring to quick money, the high life filled with “bling”, fancy cars, a bevy of women and loads of money – preferably without the work. These are the 20-something men who sink themselves into get rich quick schemes and depend on wealthy sugar mummies (and daddies) for their easy affluent lifestyle.

How did we prepare Wanjiku and the many other young men who through various means found the wherewithal to afford that lifestyle- to be husbands, fathers, leaders? Even the ones who have made it into political leadership behave in such questionable ways that one is tempted to ask, is all lost?

At the end of the day, Wanjiru is off to settle accounts with his maker. The question is, what will Kenya do now for the rest of the young men?

While there has been a lot of attention paid to the girl-child, who is growing up to be fairly organized, the boy has largely been ignored these last 20 or so years, with little mentorship and little preparation for life as a husband, leader or father. These 20 or so years is what Wanjiru lived.

Al Kags is a popular blogger on http://alkags.com and an entrepreneur.

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