Blind warrior’s sprint to success and fame

By Kiundu Waweru

Henry Wanyoike dramatically burst into the international limelight during the 2000 Sydney Paralympics games. With only 50 metres between him and the gold medal for the 5,000m race, his seeing guide ran out of breath and broke step with him. Wanyoike tugged him along, pulling on the tether cojoining them by the wrist. Spectators were mesmerised and some rushed to the track and shouting ecstatically, guided Wanyoike to the finishing line. He won his first gold medal a heartbeat away from breaking the world record.

That event marked the beginning of a colourful, decorated career. In December of the same year, then President Daniel Moi decorated him with the Order of the Golden Warrior (OGW) award, symbolically opening a floodgate of gold medal victories and world records in both track and marathon competitions for the blind. This is a feat in itself as no other runner has ever succeeded in both track and marathon.

But this success has not gone to the globetrotting athlete’s head. He remains humble and grounded. In fact, he still lives at his rural home in Kanjeru, Kikuyu, where he rears cows and chickens. He interacts freely with locals who respect him and hold him in awe.

"I have never thought of moving from my home area. It is safer for me in the neighbourhood with people who recognise me," he explains.

He is independent and does not like being guided all the time.

"I move in the neighbourhood alone but since everyone knows my condition, they accompany me."

Indeed, Wanyoike moves around smoothly, sometimes not even using his cane, tempting one to question whether he is really totally blind. In fact, this was the misconception when he won in the Sydney Paralympics.

"It was a nightmare. When I dragged my guide along, people thought it was he who was blind not me. Even the Olympics organisers were hard pressed to believe me. They put me through intense tests and I was in one machine or another for three days to ascertain that I was indeed blind."

He received his gold award three days later than everyone else.

Painful memories

Recalling this ordeal conjures up even more painful memories for the star athlete with a perpetual smile and an easy aura about him. He narrates how his world came crumbling down when he lost his eyesight at 21.

"In March 1995, I suffered a mild stroke that left me paralysed for two weeks," he says, rubbing his dark eyeglasses.

He smiles and continues: "Later, on April 30, I went to bed alright but when I woke up the next morning all I could see was a bright, intense light. Figures appeared blurred."

Wanyoike went to Kikuyu Eye Hospital, and later to MP Shah and Kenyatta hospitals. The verdict was the same — he had lost 95 per cent of his sight, and this was not reversible, as the stroke had destroyed his optic nerves. Later, he became completely blind.

"For three years, I lived in denial," says the 35-year-old who previously earned his living repairing shoes.

"I worked hard at home, looking after mum’s cattle and working on clients’ shoes late at night. Losing my eyesight meant that I would be dependent on others for everything and I was not about to accept that."

Wanyoike’s turning point came at the Christian Blind Mission, Kikuyu Hospital, when he met a German doctor, Petra Vouryern who urged him to live positively. She let Wanyoike know he could do anything he wanted despite his condition.

"One day, Petra asked me to go for a blind girl from Subukia, Nakuru, and take her to school in Thika." Wanyoike pauses for the full implication of this to sink in.

"I went to Nakuru, alone. Even with the guidance of strangers and touts, I underwent great hardship and stress. Eventually I made it!" Wanyoike says that experience opened his eyes, so to speak, and he actually looked forward to schools’ closing and opening days so that he could accompany the girl.

Later that year, 1999, he went to Machakos Institute for the Blind. There he met 80 other students who had also lost sight in adulthood.

"We were taught independent living skills among other things and it is in Machakos that I learned to accept myself."

One day, Wanyoike told his games teacher that he used to run in both primary and secondary school.

"I was good and competed at the national level." The games teacher encouraged him to start running again.

"I was excited but I did not know how I could manage to run without my eyesight. Nevertheless I tried and three months later won a 3,000m race in Machakos. That earned me a T- shirt and a certificate," he says, beaming with pride.

Then they heard about the special Sydney Olympics.

"We went to the Nyayo National Stadium for the selection of the national team that would represent Kenya. I made it and suddenly felt uncertain I could do it."

This fear of failure followed him to the track in Australia.

Annals of athletics history

"You could feel the excitement in the air with hundreds of journalists asking endless questions. To make matters worse, the announcer was introducing my competitors and I to the world through the loudspeakers. I became more scared when I learnt that most of my fellow runners had this record or that. I was the only novice. All was not lost though, the announcer proclaimed that I was a force to reckon with considering the fact that I came from a nation of great runners. He motivated me."

Wanyoike went on to overlap all the competitors he feared. He was as strong as an ox and he exhausted his guide, Kyalo, putting his name in the annals of athletics history.

Today, with a string of gold, silver and bronze medals and accolades to his name, Wanyoike gives back to the community through his Henry Wanyoike Foundation started in 2005 with the help of the tennis star, Boris Becker.

"I give motivational talks in schools, which I also get to do in countries I visit through the Standard Chartered ‘Seeing is Believing’ campaign where I am a goodwill ambassador." He says because most disabled people are abandoned; he has opened doors for them. He helps where he can but most importantly, through him, they have realised that disability is not inability and that they too can become useful.

Knows what poverty means

Born in 1974, Wanyoike went to Kanjeru Primary and Kahuho Uhuru High schools. He was brought up in the Shauri Yako slums in Gitaru, Kikuyu, and he knows only too well what poverty means. Perhaps this is why he has reached out to the underprivileged by setting them up in small businesses.

"We give chicks, pigs and cows to families. We have given out 52 cows and to keep the continuity, the beneficiaries give another poor family the calf when the cow calves."

Wanyoike has also quenched thirst in Machakos, "We dug a borehole at the school I attended and the surrounding community now has water."

In Kikuyu, he organises an annual race dubbed ‘Hope for the Future Run’, which is the climax of the year’s activities. Among them is cleaning of the environment, planting trees, sports as well as HIV and Aids related activities. This he achieves through a youth group he partners with.

The run takes place every May.

"May is special to me as I was born on May 10 and lost my sight on May 1. Thus it is the month of hope."

He explains that this year, the run will be held on June 6 because he will be in Germany for the whole of this month running and giving motivational talks.

The run is meant to bring the people of Kikuyu together and there are invited speakers who cover myriad topical issues.

Wanyoike is married to Myllow Wanja and they have three children, Peterson Nderi, 17, Petra Wangui, 12, and Hugh Hurchell, five. He met Myllow in a phone booth at the Nyayo Stadium and asked for her help. Although she was first wary of him, she agreed and later they went for coffee and eventually married.