On August 23, 2008, the whole nation came to stand still on the last day of the Beijing Olympics. Samuel Wanjiru raced into the Bird’s Nest Stadium, waving at the crowd as he went on to win Kenya’s first ever gold in marathon.
He unfortunately never defended his title in London 2012 as he passed away on May 15, 2011, a tale that hasn’t been unearthed.
The 10th anniversary of the death of Olympic marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru for the first time passed on without any major activity.
Gitimu village where Wanjiru was buried and a mausoleum built, now has a deserted compound with an empty zero-grazing structure standing conspicuously next to the mausoleum.
In the past, his family members could visit the graveyard with flowers and a small race organized to remember the fallen hero.
This time round, not even by family members, an indication that people might have moved on with life.
“We used to have a road race organised in his honour but it was discontinued due to poor organisation,” Solomon Wachira, a former athlete told the People Daily.
The athlete’s mother Hanna Wanjiru and widow Triza Njeri however say that their focus now is the inquest in a Nairobi court that is looking into the cause of his death, 10 years ago.
The inquest has been postponed to August 2021 when witness testimonies are most likely to be concluded and ruling delivered after that.
Wanjiru died after allegedly falling off a balcony at his home at the Muthaiga estate in Nyahururu town following a domestic dispute.