KARA AUGUST 2011 ISSUE.indd

SPORTS
Talented youths need
counselling on risky behaviours
On May 15,2011 the sporting
world woke up to
shocking news of the death of
one of Kenya’s top athletes,
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru,
(Pictured)
He had allegedly
jumped to his death
from the balcony of his
Nyahururu mansion after
a disagreement with
his wife Tereziah Njeri,
a very tragic end to the man who
became the first Kenyan to win an
Olympics gold medal in Marathon
at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But as the dust settles down
over the circumstances
surrounding his death, many
questions abound and the
fingers are pointing
to the government.
Many are the
unanswered
questions:
Is the
Government
doing enough,
or anything to
support elite athletes
and other talented
youths? What about the
sports associations in the
country? What else should the
country have done differently to save
the life of Wanjiru?
Soon after his death, at least
three women other than his wife
Tereziah claimed to have been
married to him, or that he
fathered their children. This raises questions
about famed youths struggling with
destructive traits.
Between the period after the 2008
Beijing Olympics and the time of his death,
Wanjiru was wallowing in millions of dollars
from participating and winning international
marathons. At just 24 when he died, he
needed a lot of counselling to manage the
sudden wealth that was coming his way.
And who else was in a better position
to do this than Athletics Kenya? In fact, the
counselling and nurturing should be done for
all its athletes, particularly about life skills and
investment of their huge incomes from
prizes, bonuses, and endorsements.
Many have succumbed to
depression, hopelessness,
alcohol abuse and fallen from
glory to grass.
The
government only takes notice when
they are gone, like Wanjiru.
The emphasis
on medical and dope
tests by sports bodies
also should extend to
psychiatric assessment to
ensure that all is well
with our stars.
As the UK House of Commons
Committee of Public Accounts observed
in a report UK Sport: Supporting elite
athletes (Fifty–fourth Report of Session
2005–06), sport is not just about medals
or a celebrity culture, but about the benefits
of taking part- in Wanjiru’s case, strong family values,
investment culture and general life skills.
The face that many athletes have left Kenya for
other countries especially those in the Middle East
exemplifies the kind of nurturing that we badly need
to preserve and protect our own. The government
must look into their economic and social wellbeing.
Yet as Macharia Gaitho of the Editors’ Guild
observed on the day Wanjiru died, “Does Athletics
Kenya have a programme to monitor
and support the young men and women thrust from
humble, deprived backgrounds to instant fame and
fortune?”
“Do we really care for these national heroes
beyond shining in the reflected glory? Who provides
the support, guidance and counselling when life
starts to unravel? Who protects them from all the
sharks? Who helps them remain on an even keel
when they might be dizzy with all
the riches and adulation?
What do those
managers
and
coaches do other than running cash-minting
machines?
Mr Gaitho concluded: “We are failing these
young national heroes.”
According to Kamau Macharia of Sports
Boosters, the government has been abandoning
sports people at the airport whenever their
performance is below expectation. “We wonder why
a parent would throw away his child for failing in
an exam when all along he has been at the top. It
demoralizes us to know that the government is only
with us when we are winning but completely turns its
back on us for isolated failures,” he said.
10.