It was a cold morning in April, two weeks before the 2014 London Marathon. I was ready to take on the steep slopes of Mount Kenya near the town of Sagana, 210 kilometers from Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Stretching and warming up, I eagerly waited to join Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at this high-altitude training camp. And when she showed up, what was meant to be a light 13 kilometer jog left me with a wonky knee and a sore back. By the time we reached the finish line, my body had given up.
But the first lady? At least once, I thought she would give up too, but the sprightly 50-year-old was more focused than anyone I had seen.
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Her focus was the streets of London, where she would take part in the 42 kilometer London Marathon, not to become yet another long-distance Kenya runner, but to promote a cause close to her heart. The cause: the ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’, a fund-raising initiative aimed at improving maternal and infant health in Kenya.
According to UNAIDS, in Kenya, as many as 5,500 women die annually due to pregnancy-related complications, and more than 100,000 children die every year by the age of five. Twenty percent of maternal deaths in the country are AIDS-related. The ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ aims to improve maternal health care by ensuring accessibility to health facilities through mobile clinics, and prevention of mother-to-child disease transmission.
“There is simply no good reason why thousands of women and children in Kenya should die during child-birth today. This is unacceptable,” says Kenyatta.
“These are not just statistics. These are our fellow Kenyan sisters and children who die largely as a result of pregnancy and HIV-related complications that are preventable. It is just not acceptable with such worrying statistics to sit back and watch. This concerns the future of this nation, we had to take action.”
As in many African countries, Kenyan women face challenges in accessing healthcare facilities. Most of them have to travel long distances for them. The funds raised by ‘Beyond Zero’ will assist in the provision of mobile clinics, incubators, diagnostic kits for early infant testing of HIV, and oxygen concentrators.
“As a mother myself, it is worrying, it is heart-breaking. It is unnecessary for children to die through lack of medicine. I will do what I can to help,” says Kenyatta in her campaign message.
The campaign is targeting a total of $5.7 million and the first lady chose a marathon as a means to raise the funds.
“Marathon-running is a very Kenyan thing. As Kenyans, we are the undisputed kings and queens of road running. This is something that pushed my limits and took me out of my comfort zone, and something that has got Kenya and the world paying attention,” she says.
In March, she participated in the inaugural First Lady’s Half Marathon, a 21 kilometer race in Nairobi for the ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’. She then decided to take the cause to the world stage by participating in the
London Marathon.
The first lady finished the race in seven hours. At the finish line was her husband, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, waiting to receive her.
As expected, the Kenyans came tops in both the men’s and women’s elite races, with Wilson Kipsang (2hr 4min 29sec) and Edna Kiplagat (2hr 20min 21sec) taking first positions respectively.
No wonder the first lady completed the race with no qualms. She had trained with some of the world’s finest athletes, including Kipsang who is also the World Marathon holder and Florence Kiplagat, the World Half Marathon holder.
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Her team trainer is also one of the world’s champions, Douglas Wakiihuri. He won the 1987 World Championships in Athletics, the London Marathon in 1989 and the New York Marathon in 1990.
Wakiihuri was returning to London 25 years later at the age of 50, but this time for the course that he shared with the Kenyan first lady. He prepared her mentally and physically.
“We trained in a camp, same as the Olympic one. Her mental preparedness is basically that of an elite athlete which is very special,” said Wakiihuri of the first lady’s preparedness.
What made it even more commendable was that she was running and training for the first time.
“It has not been easy because none of my team members has run before. It’s very new for us and we are not that young,” says the first lady.
The team started training in November, walking at first, then jogging slowly before picking up pace. The challenges were waking up in the wee hours for intensive training and being away from their families. In the end, it all paid off.

The First Lady of the road

It was a long journey for many on a sunny afternoon to the district of Laikipia, on the Equator, tucked away in the shadow of Mount Kenya.
Many had journeyed 200 kilometers from Nairobi to catch a glimpse of Africa’s richest footballer.
The longest journey of all was undertaken by Samuel Eto’o, who had flown from Moscow.
Eto’o leads a strange life in Russia amid vast wealth, unrest and racism. He scored 13 goals in 23 games for Anzhi Makhachkala, a team in Dagestan on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, close to the borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan. It is also a club slap–bang in the middle of Islamic insurgency. The region is considered so dangerous that Eto’o and his teammates have to train at a camp outside Moscow and fly more than 1,200 kilometers, 15 times-a-season, for home games.
On this warm afternoon in Laikipia, in the Kenyan highlands, there was no danger, merely adulation. More than 10,000 people crammed into the tiny football ground, with its two small stands, for the final of the Laikipia Unity Cup, where Eto’o was to make a symbolic kick-off.
The crowd was loud and jubilant. You could probably have heard the roar on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Thousands cheered and blew vuvuzelas as Eto’o, flanked by soldiers and the police commissioner, strode to the center-circle through a guard of honor made by players from nearby football clubs. It was a rare sight these days–one of the highest-paid athletes on the planet, in jeans and a T-shirt, mixing with the people as if he was about to lace up his boots and play.
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The Cameroonian was in Kenya to promote conservation and environmental issues, but this trip to Laikipia sparked the idea of opening a football academy in the district. It would be the third in Africa after those he opened through the Eto’o Foundation in Gabon and Cameroon.
“I was driving back to the hotel when this crazy but beautiful idea crossed my mind. I hoped those who would attend the academy would take advantage of the opportunity. I want them to be better than me.”
Thirty-one-year-old Eto’o is the only man to win African Player of the Year four times. He earns $28.8 million a year. His club, Anzhi Makhachkala, is owned by a man who can afford him: Russian billionaire, Suleyman Kerimov. He is the 146th richest man in the world, according to Forbes, worth $6.5 billion. Kerimov, who was born and bred in Dagestan, owns stakes in everything
from long-distance telephone lines to Russia’s largest
gold mine.
The money may be good in Europe, but all too often the racism is bad, even though the authorities are trying to stamp it out. Eto’o has been in the thick of it. Once, while playing for Barcelona, he threatened to walk off the pitch as Real Zaragoza fans chanted racial insults at him. In March 2011, hooligans threw bananas—a crude expression of racism—at Eto’o’s fellow player and former Brazilian captain, Roberto Carlos. Russia, the host of the FIFA World Cup in 2018, is alleged to suffer from severe racism in football.
“Racism is everywhere and football is only a reflection of our society,” he says.
“Racism is about ignorance and nothing else. It’s not that hard to change a racist mind; all you need to do is to educate them,” says the striker.
The face of European soccer is changing fast. Almost all top European football clubs have an African playing for them. The success of the likes of Eto’o and Didier Drogba—who played a pivotal role in getting Chelsea the first-ever European Champions League trophy in May—is attracting more African football youth to Europe.
“A lot of youth have immigrated to Europe because they are looking for better opportunities. I actually want them to stay here in Africa so that they can build the continent,” he says.
Eto’o has a plan beyond football. The football academy he intends to build in Kenya will also focus on educating the youth on a number of subjects, particularly learning English.
“Football has given me everything and I would like to give back some of the things I got through football. That’s why I’m investing back into football in Africa.”
On the question of whether he will remain as one of the top-paid African players in the world, Eto’o was quick to detach football from money.
“Football is not about money, it’s about talent. My objective is to nurture the next generation of footballers so that this trend keeps on continuing. That’s one of the reasons why I am investing in football academies—so that the next generation can be as talented as ours.”
Eto’o’s contract with Anzhi comes to an end in 2014 and the Cameroonian skipper has planned his retirement. He has a number of projects that will keep him busy for years to come and a campaign against racism that is likely to take a lifetime.

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The First Lady of the road

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