Samuel Kamau Wanjiru gestures as he crosses the finish line to win the men's marathon at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August 24, 2008. The athletics star died under mysterious circumstances at his residence in Nyahururu in 2011.
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru’s mausoleum lies desolate, some 14 years after his tragic demise shocked the running world.
Overgrown grass and an untrimmed kei apple hedge, whose rugged flow is interrupted by a decaying wooden fence and some barbed wire, punctuate the emptiness.
Kenya’s first Olympic marathon gold medallist would have turned 38 on November 10 this year - and would certainly be numerous accolades richer -- but a fall off the balcony of his mansion at Nyahururu’s Muthiga Estate some 14 years ago on May 15, 2011, snuffed life out of the young, promising soul.
Wanjiru’s forlorn resting place on his family farm in Nyahururu’s Gatimu Village is a glass and steel structure covering a marble tombstone with an epitaph reading: “In memory of Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.
Born: 1986; Died 15/05/2011 -- You fought a good fight, finished the race and kept the faith. You will forever live within our hearts.”
The grave lies on a small plot featuring an abandoned cow shed. It is on these grounds that Wanjiru ran a thriving livestock an poultry farming business that employed four attendants.
The business came a cropper immediately after his death.
Fresh murram was routinely being laid on the road leading to Wanjiru’s village when we visited ahead of yesterday’s 14th anniversary memorial of the two-time Chicago Marathon champion and two-time World Marathon Majors winner who was idolised at his Japanese base.
Wanjiru left Kenya for Japan at a pretty early age of 16 in 2002, graduating from the Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi Prefecture (province), before joining the professional running team at Toyota Kyushu under coach Koichi Morishita, Japan’s marathon silver medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
Olympics marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru is congratulated by former athlete John Ngugi on arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi in this file photo.
His mother, Hannah Wanjiru, travelled to Japan for the athlete’s high school graduation in March, 2005, and remained a huge motivation throughout his illustrious running career. The pain of losing Wanjiru at just 24 is still fresh in Hannah’s life.
Hannah lives in solitude a few metres from the Muthiga Police Patrol Base close by the late star’s mansion.
She still believes her son was killed, despite a decade-long inquest into the legend’s death having ruled out the murder or suicide theories.
“Why did they kill my son… But I know God will give me justice one day,” she remarks as we sit down for a chat over lunch – ugali, fried eggs and cabbage -- quick to stress that she wouldn’t want to make further comments on the controversial death and inquest as she believes investigations into her son’s death are still alive.
She is also uncomfortable about being photographed for this story.
In her ruling on October 18, 2023, Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo Micheni explained how the matter had to be transferred to Nairobi from Nyahururu after “emotional winds blew too strongly causing the legal tempers to flare up.”
Hannah Wanjiru, mother of the late athlete Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.
Hannah had charged that Wanjiru’s wife, Teresia Wanjiru, was among those involved in the athlete’s death, charges the judge overruled, with the long drawn-out case effectively separating mother from her daughter-in-law.
Justice Micheni’s judgement said according to the post-mortem conducted at Nairobi’s Lee Funeral Home on May 27, 2011, by four pathologists – Moses Njue Mugo, Emily Rogena, Peter Ndegwa and Johansen Oduol – the cause of the athlete’s death was blunt trauma at the back of the head.
A post-mortem report, signed by Dr Emily Rogena who assisted in the post-mortem on instruction from Hannah’s lawyer, concluded that the marathoner death came about due to “head injuries and blunt force trauma to the occiput (back of the head) with features of a fall from height consciously landing on fours (knees and both hands).”
The judgment also concluded that Wanjiru’s intoxication played a role in his fall.
“The late Samuel Kamau Wanjiru’s death is therefore ruled as accidental. The copious amount of alcohol he had consumed also having a role to play,” she ruled.
A 10-foot concrete wall crowned by an electric fence surrounds Hannah’s home that stands in the middle of five other affluent compounds, a stone’s throw away from the athlete’s mansion. A few onions are planted in a small garden outside the wall.
Police officers carry the remains of Samuel Kamau Wanjiru out of Lee Funeral Home, Nairobi on June 11,2011 . Photo/WILLIAM OERI
We had arrived at the home at 12.28pm and after ringing the bell several times, a worker opened the gate and asked us to wait, with Hannah arriving about 20 minutes later from her errands, having gone to the market to buy some milk, bread and other utilities.
On the wall in the modest home, two large images of Wanjiru winning the 2005 Rotterdam Marathon are prominent, alongside a framed Daily Nation article reporting on his 2009 London Marathon triumph.
An inflatable ANA (All Nippon Airways, a Japanese carrier) aircraft model hanging from the ceiling and a large framed photograph of Wanjiru and his Japanese teammates celebrating after winning a competition are the only visible reminders of the star’s days in Japan.
In the 2005 Rotterdam race, Wanjiru clocked 59 minutes and 16 seconds to break compatriot Paul Tergat’s then seven-year-old world record, leading a Kenyan dominance in the first five positions.
Hannah recalls her son’s deep faith in our conversation on Wednesday.
Teresia Njeri, widow of the late marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru at a Nyahururu court on October 13, 2011. Photo/JOSEPH KURIA
“He would always call me and ask me to pray for him ahead of any major races,” she flashed back.
“My son was a staunch Catholic, something he picked up from his primary school which was run by the Catholic Church. He was brought up in the Catholic faith.
“Even when he won the Olympic gold in Beijing, he had asked me to pray for him ahead of the race… I had just had surgery at that time and I fasted for four days, praying for his Olympic gold... I started fasting right after coming from the surgery theatre. He called me asking: ‘mum, have you come out of the theatre? Did you remember to pray for me?’
“He was a true believer. When he was in Japan, he would always write to me and tell me whenever he had a race, and that I should pray for him…
“Even when you walk in the midst of problems, you should have faith,” she adds, quoting the Bible from the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, that touches on the central feature of faith being confidence or trust.
Interestingly, unlike his superstar son Wanjiru, Hannah is not a Catholic faithful.
“I was raised as Catholic but after school in Ol Kalou, I joined the Full Gospel Church,” she explained.
In Beijing, Wanjiru won Kenya’s first Olympic marathon gold in a Games record two hours, six minutes and 39 seconds, a record that stood until only last year when Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola improved it by 12 seconds to 2:06:26 in Paris.
On the day of the Beijing Olympic marathon race, Hannah’s home was crowded with relatives, friends and Wanjiru’s training partners who had come to watch the Olympic marathon race live on TV, besides wishing her well as she recovered from her surgery.
In stark contrast, there was little activity yesterday at the home on the 14th anniversary of Wanjiru’s death.
Hannah said she didn’t have a budget to put together a memorial for her son, whose life touched many, as she went about her errands in Nyahururu town.
“He (Wanjiru) had a short but extremely illustrious life. He lived as fast as he ran, fast and furiously. He touched many lives but the glow could not last long akin to burning the candle from both ends…. May his life and death yield dividends for the future sportsmen and women. May his family and loved ones know peace,” Justice Micheni’s ruling concluded.
Clearly, Hannah is still looking for this peace.
Tomorrow: Samuel Wanjiru’s orphans – How Nyahururu athletes who relied on marathon star are holding up, 14 years later
