Luke Kibet at the Kenyan Prisons cross country championships (© Omulo Okoth)
While watching a group of Kenyan athletes training at the Nairobi Uhuru Gardens, 2007 World Marathon champion Luke Kibet can easily pass without notice. The 24-year-old who struck gold in Osaka has a relatively short stature compared to the seven athletes who are training with him. Even though he has been at the head of the training pack for most of the one and half hours session Kibet is not a man who seems to standout from the crowd, and on a bright day like this not even his brightly coloured training shirt is able to clearly pick him out from the group.
But by the sheer determination and will he has shown to put behind him the aching memories of what befell him on 29 December 2007, there is no arguing that Luke Kibet should shine like a beacon of hope for his troubled homeland of Kenya.
UPDATE: 13 Feb - Kibet suffers another attack
Close shave
On that fateful Saturday, Kibet, like other Kenyans, was busy going about his business. He had finalised his travel arrangements from Eldoret to Nairobi, and while walking leisurely with a friend along the streets of Eldoret town, something unimagined unfolded right under his eyes.
He came face to face with the disturbing sight of a man who had been brutally shot by armed gangs and was bleeding profusely by the road side. Two more people, a woman and a child on the opposite side of the road were crying. Unsure of whom to attend to first, Kibet and his friend went for the man. It then became clear to them that they had entered a gang controlled area, a group of armed militia who were protesting about the outcome of the presidential election results, released just fifteen minutes earlier.
With the help of his athlete friend, Kibet quickly summoned an ambulance from the nearest hospital but before he could provide further assistance to the victim, his world suddenly went blank.
Grace of god
“I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head before I lost it all. When I woke up, I found myself at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. My friend later told me I was hit by a stone by the armed youth who were irked by my kind actions.”
Gazing into the expansive training field as he recalls the incident, the soft spoken Kibet is lost for words as he tries to comprehend the full magnitude of what befell him, saying that was “it was just the tip of the iceberg” compared to what happened to 100s of others.
“I stayed in the hospital for three weeks where doctors stitched my head but assured me that I would be discharged soon.” But while in the hospital, police officers lobbed tear gas canisters at a gang that had sought refuge in the hospital and Kibet had to move to a safer place from where he fully recovered.
“Looking back at that dark history of our great nation, I feel sad that we allowed our country to be another statistic in the African history of ethnic flare ups. It is hard to imagine a country that was so united could be separated by what has been our ethnic social-cultural adhesive for ages.”
Forgive and forget
But for the man who felt the pain of the chaos and saw atrocities of unimagined proportions committed to members of his community - many who were killed with thousands maimed and displaced - the World champion believes that true healing and reconciliation among Kenyan communities will only be achieved by forgiving and forgetting the past.
“I hold no ill feelings against the perpetrators of the act that nearly changed my life. I have forgiven them and put that behind me. I will still hold high the Kenyan flag that unifies all kenyans irrespective of their ethnic affiliation. We must redefine the essence of patriotism.”
London Marathon debut
In the three weeks since he formally resumed training, Kibet has got a full sense of what he missed in terms of fitness because of the incident. He finished 6th in the 12km race during the recent Kenyan Prison Services XC trials but feels he is ready for a comeback.
“I tested my endurance, speed work and general fitness after the three week break. I did make the prison team to the national trials and I hope to represent Kenya in the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh next month. All these prepartions are geared towards my Flora London Marathon debut in April.”
Kibet has fully recovered now and is now at the Kenya Prisons’ Service XC training camp at the outskirts of Nairobi preparing for the National Trials on 1 March. With over five hundred athletes from across the ethnic divide in Kenya expected to take part in the event, Kibet hopes that as they run together, Kenyans will borrow leaf from the spirit of their harmonious co-existence and once again, rediscover the warmth and hospitality that has long been known of them.
Saddique Shaban - Kenya Television Network (KTN) - for the IAAF
