May 16, 2011
Today we woke up to the sad news that Mr Samuel WanjiruKamau, who was steadily developing into our country’s running phenomenon, has died.
Wanjiru’s death is not only a loss to his family and friends but to Kenya as a whole and the entire world athletics fraternity. I wish to register sincere condolences to the family, friends and the whole sport fraternity for this loss.
As an athletics nation, we looked forward to a sterling performance in the Olympic Games in London next year. MrWanjiru was one of our sure bets for gold in the upcoming contest. His death is therefore a big blow to our dreams.
As a country, we shall always remember MrWanjiru’s great action on the international stage when he led an African sweep of the marathon medals on the final day of the Beijing Olympics. With his victory, ours became the last National Anthem to be played in Beijing when the games came to a close, and we earned our first Olympic marathon title.
We looked forward to MrWanjiru successfully defending in London the Olympic record time of two hours six minutes 32 seconds he made in Beijing.
Although MrWanjiru was a Kenyan, Japan shouldered his training for years because of the promise they saw in him as an inspiration to the youth. He was a disciplined and committed leader in the field of athletics, from whom the youth could learn and get inspiration to face the future on the strength of their own determination to succeed. It is my hope that his exploits will inspire more of our young people to carry on from where he has left.
May God rest his soul in peace.
RT. HON. RAILA A. ODINGA, EGH, MP
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