Billions worldwide watched and applauded on Sunday as International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge presented Kenya’s Samuel Kamau Wanjiru with a gold medal for winning the men’s marathon race that brought the curtain down on a highly successful Beijing Olympic Games, both for the Chinese hosts and for Kenya. Kenya finished the competition as the top African nation and an impressive 15th overall with 14 medals - five gold, five silver and four bronze. For newly crowned Olympic men marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru the victory is not just for his country, it is a sheer personal determination and hunger for uplifting the living standard of his mother. It is a victory of an African mother who did everything to bring up this young man with no assistance from the world that enjoyed the spectacular performance. She was not physically there at the “bird’s nest” but what few people know is that her inspiration was brought in form of her name.
I come from the same area as Wanjiru who won the Marathon and apart from sharing the same name, I can identify with him in many ways. Like me and many other children his mother could not raise fees demanded by the school and he therefore struggled to be in school. Like many single mothers, his mum struggle against odd to have him in school anyway. Because of the struggle he saw his mother go through to see him attend primary school, Kamau came to revere his mother’s name so much that he took a lot of pride in calling himself Samuel Wanjiru as opposed to Samuel Kamau. Wanjiru is a typical girl name such as Helene or Marianne here in Norway. Except for an extra-ordinary objective, no boy would call himself after their mother in our community.
Personally, having been from the same background I struggled to find out what I will call myself. Although my mum is a super woman who has done everything to keep us a live through the most difficult times and with minimal resources, I preferred to call myself after my maternal grand father; Kamau Muiruri. However, Wanjiru is better known at home as Kamau. No one would dare call him Wanjiru there.As a young boy in the same area as Kamau, I recall how we derived inspiration from all other Kenyan runners. Running is a thing of pride and prestige. It was even placed higher than education mainly because you did not need to pay fees to excel in it. We all had a marathon after school and those who were more determined had their own training time. I won few titles for my school too. Since her farm in Githunguri, Ol-Kalou Division of now Nyandarua District could not cater for many children, Annah wanjiru (Kamau’s Mother) used to work for other people, cultivating their farms to earn money to raise her children. She used to struggle to put food on the table for her boys.Today, Annah is living a comfortable life in an up-market area of Nyahururu town, thanks to the exploits of her son in athletics; it has changed her fortune forever and I tell you what, she is the real winner.
By Kamau Muiruri
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