Henry Wanyoike (right) trains with his guide, Joseph Kibunja, in Kikuyu, Kenya. The blind champion athlete is a source of inspiration in his community.
KIKUYU, KENYA – It is a cold and misty morning in Kikuyu, a town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Two men emerge from a bushy path and run down the town’s main road, tethered to each other by a short string tied around their hands.
Because the avenue does not have a consistent sidewalk, the men have to run in the roadway; they repeatedly dash to the curb to dodge oncoming traffic. After covering about 5 kilometers (3 miles), the two exit the main road and head down a dirt road to an open field where they continue exercising for about an hour.
The athletes, Henry Wanyoike and his guide, Joseph Kibunja, have been running down this road three times a day for 12 years. Kibunja, running closely behind and to the right of Wanyoike, tugs on the string to direct his companion.
Except for the folded white cane that Wanyoike carries, it is not immediately evident that he is blind. What is noticeable is that his positive attitude comes to the fore when he speaks.
“I have achieved more while blind than when I was not,” he says, tapping his left hand with the cane.
When Wanyoike lost his sight 19 years ago, he thought his dream of becoming a champion athlete would never come true.
“I lost hope in life,” he says. “I became angry and depressed.”
But looking back, the 40-year-old athlete sees the stroke that blinded him in 1995 as a blessing in disguise.
Wanyoike was an athlete before he became blind. After competing in school competitions and winning races at the national level, he aspired to represent Kenya at international competitions.
After his stroke, it took him three years to emerge from depression and undertake a rehabilitation program. In 1999, he enrolled in Machakos Technical Institute for the Blind in Machakos, a town about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Nairobi. While studying at the institute, Wanyoike began running again, this time with a guide.
He ran his first marathon in 2002 in Japan. The experience was so excruciating that he swore never to run another one, he says.
“It was bad,” he says, shaking his head. “I had no idea people drink water on the way, and I ran without shoes. At the end of the race, I was dying of thirst and had blisters all over my feet.”
But his determination to be a marathon champion returned after he healed. He ran a marathon in Hong Kong the next year.
Through his charity work and his service as a local politician, Wanyoike strives to help others who are visually impaired find success in their lives.
“Even if I died today, I would die a happy man,” Wanyoike says.
As the goodwill ambassador for Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing is Believing global community program, which raises funds to assist people with visual impairments, Wanyoike raises funds for charity by running in open races.
To nurture young athletes and bring members of his community together, he has also started a foundation that organizes marathons in his community. In addition, he represents people with disabilities on the Kiambu County Assembly.
Wanyoike won his first gold medal in the 5,000 meters at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. At the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, he won gold medals and set world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
He set a new record for blind athletes of 2:31:51 for the Virgin Money London Marathon. The next week, he broke his own record at the Hamburg, Germany, marathon, setting a new record of 2:31:31.
At his last Paralympic Games, in 2008, he won a bronze medal in the 5,000 meters.
Standard Chartered Bank appointed Wanyoike as a global ambassador for its Seeing is Believing campaign in 2003 after he finished the bank’s 10-kilometer road race in Nairobi in just over 30 minutes.
The bank sponsors his participation in marathons all over the world. For every kilometer he runs, the bank donates $1,000 to the Seeing is Believing campaign, he says.
The bank aims to raise $100 million to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. So far it has raised $75 million.
Last year, Wanyoike was named to the Kiambu County Assembly to represent people with disabilities. In his time on the assembly, he has helped craft legislation favorable to people with disabilities. For instance, he helped write a bill that exempts people with disabilities from paying a fee for a business license.
Through his foundation, the Henry Wanyoike Foundation, the athlete has organized an annual marathon in Kikuyu for eight years. The event nurtures young athletes, raises awareness of disability and brings the community together, he says.
“People in my community rarely come together, unless when they are voting,” he says. “The marathons offer them an opportunity to interact and raise issues affecting them.”
Wanyoike invited foreign dignitaries to last June’s marathon to help defuse foreigners’ fear of terror attacks in Kenya.
“I wanted the world to know that Kikuyu is a safe town,” he says. “So I requested the British high commissioner [to Kenya], Christian Turner, to be my guide during the marathon, and he agreed.”
The number of participants in the marathon has grown dramatically, from 2,000 in 2007 to 20,000 in 2014, Wanyoike says.
Wanyoike involves marathoners with various disabilities to showcase their abilities and counter the assumption that disabled people cannot do anything on their own, he says.
Wanyoike says he has witnessed a shift in attitude since he started organizing marathons. Community members have stopped hiding their disabled children at home and seek his advice on the best schools for them.
Wanyoike’s guide of 12 years, Joseph Kibunja, says the athlete inspires him to work hard. Kibunja says he was initially not into athletics but that Wanyoike encouraged him to train with him every day. Over time, he started loving the sport and finally became Wanyoike’s guide.
“I normally say to myself, ‘If Wanyoike can do it, I can do it too,’” he says.
With a short tether between them, Kibunja serves as Wanyoike’s eyes during training and competition. They train together three times a day, every day.
By overcoming blindness and establishing himself as a world champion, Wanyoike has become a big inspiration in his community, Kibunja says.
“Those of us who were with him when he went blind thought that was the end of him,” he says. “His achievements while blind have amazed us all.”
Wanyoike especially inspires people with disabilities.
Dennis Omondi, a disabled businessman who participates in the Kikuyu marathons that Wanyoike’s foundation hosts, won the tricycle competition in three consecutive years, from 2011 to 2013. The 40-year-old athlete, whose legs were paralyzed by polio when he was a child, says Wanyoike moves him to look beyond his disability.
“He is a hardworking and trustworthy man whom I seek to emulate,” he says, adjusting his wheelchair.
Each marathon victory has brought Omondi a cash prize of 20,000 shillings ($225). Using this cash and awards from other racing competitions, Omondi bought a van that he uses to operate a public transport business.
Wanyoike is more down to earth and accessible than most public officials, Kikuyu resident Paul Waruhiu says. Other politicians only visit with ordinary citizens when they need votes, but not Wanyoike, he says.
“He interacts with us like an ordinary citizen even after he joined the county assembly,” Waruhiu says.
The athlete also inspires young people in the town, Waruhiu says. He encourages them to work hard and pursue their dreams despite facing hardships.
“Wanyoike speaks hope even after losing his sight,” he says.
The athlete just ran the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon on Oct. 26. He is now training to run a marathon in Singapore in December. Both marathons are for charity.
Running for charity gives him satisfaction, he says. Through his work, he strives to demonstrate to the community that anything is possible.
“It gives me an opportunity to give people sight,” he says.
GPJ translated some interviews from Kiswahili.
