David Macharia
21 April 2007
Nairobi — Long regarded as a sport for people who cannot make it in formal employment, athletics is continuously becoming one of the fastest avenues to riches. It is estimated that Sh500 million is shipped annually into Kenya by athletes, contributing to economic growth.
The runners have invested in real estate, health and education, creating jobs for Kenyans. Besides, they are involved in community projects. And nowhere is their contribution being felt as much as in the North Rift area, the hotbed of Kenya's athletics. Many of the athletes come from Iten, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Keiyo, Baringo and Marakwet districts where they also train for their world-beating exploits.
A Saturday Nation survey has revealed that the money in prizes is fast turning the region from an agricultural zone into a massive investment destination.
Eldoret town and the surrounding areas are witnessing a property boom as the sportsmen and women, many of them from the area, set the pace in investing their earnings at home.
Imposing buildings are coming up in the town, attracting investors from other areas such as Nakuru, Kisumu and Nairobi.
Over the past five years, Eldoret has experienced unprecedented expansion. Once an area in which athletes ventured into farming, the situation is fast changing. "After realising that we could slide back to poverty when our running careers are over, we resorted to investment to guarantee ourselves better lives on retirement," says Moses Tanui, a two-time Boston marathon champion.
Today, unlike in the past when the runners would ceaselessly talk about sport and its records, most of them now talk investment. So obsessed with investment are they that they recently held a seminar at which they were given tips on available investment opportunities.
After the day-long meeting, organised by Keino Sports Marketing and Fine Touch Communications, most athletes started exploring ways of putting their earnings into shares at the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Keino Sports Marketing is a sports management company run by Martin Keino, a professional runner of about 10 years, while the proprietor of Fine Touch Communications is marathon record holder Paul Tergat.
But investment by athletes is not an entirely new phenomenon in Eldoret. A hotel called Grandpri, after the lucrative International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) races circuit Grand Prix, belongs to Moses Tanui, who owns other premises next to the African Independent Church near the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Sammy Korir, who pushed Tergat into breaking the world marathon record in Berlin, is among top investors in the town with a five-storey building on Kenyatta Street, which is rented by a supermarket. The conspicuous properties owned by successful athletes have galvanised young runners into training hard, knowing that they too can own such wealth.
The oldest investment in commercial property by an athlete is a commercial building on Arap Moi Street owned by the first African to win the Boston marathon, Ibrahim Hussein Kipkemboi.
Situated near the main bus park in the town is another five-storey building, Komora Centre, owned by Moses Kiptanui who once dominated the world 3,000-metre steeplechase for five years. The main tenant is the local branch of the Tusker Mattresses supermarket chain, which occupies three floors. Kiptanui owns another commercial building next to the local Barclays Bank branch.
There is also Johannesburg Plaza, at the junction of Oloo and Nandi Streets, which is the property of veteran middle-distance runner Laban Rotich.
Tergat owns several properties in Nairobi and his home town of Kabarnet.
Besides putting up commercial buildings in downtown Eldoret, the runners are involved in the construction of residential estates on the outskirts, particularly on land formerly owned by the Lonrho conglomerate.
Lonrho property
Many athletes were among people who bought the property when Lonrho divested from agriculture.
Yet others have invested in education. For instance, Potters Academy in downtown Eldoret is owned by Daniel Komen who has other commercial storeyed buildings in the town.
Salaba Academy on the Iten road is owned by marathoner Christopher Cheboiboch who says he has invested about Sh20 million in it.
When several runners moved to the Middle East countries of Qatar and Bahrain and acquired new citizenship, there was a hue and cry since it was felt that Kenya was losing a valuable human resource. Residents of Trans Nzoia and Mt Elgon districts felt shortchanged when one of their own defected. But James Kwalia, who moved to Qatar, has initiated multi-million-shilling projects in his home area to benefit his people.
The most notable project comprises a school and a health centre. Already, Evergreen Educational Centre is overwhelmed by the number of pupils seeking admission.
But the leading investor in education is legendary Kipchoge Keino. His Kip Keino primary school, a few kilometres from the town centre, on the Webuye highway, is among the best in the region.
He is also putting up a Sh50 million secondary school on his Kazi Mingi farm which, he says, will absorb pupils mainly from the primary school.
The mother of Kenya's women marathon running, Tegla Lorupe, who is involved in peace building in her West Pokot home district, is putting up a modern school that is expected to cater for disadvantaged children of the pastoralist communities in the North Rift.
But some athletes opted to invest in the sport itself. Kip Keino Training Centre on the Kazi Mingi farm is a good example. Because of its high standard of training and management, the centre was picked to host one of the seven High-Performance Training Centres in the world.
Moses Tanui owns Kaptagat Training Centre, which has produced world-beating marathon runners.
Another notable training facility is Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Centre in Iten that offers opportunities for budding women athletes.
The centre has a modern gymnasium, an important facility for an athlete's training.
Kiplagat, though no longer a Kenyan after becoming a Dutch national after getting married there, maintains the facility and regularly comes to train for various world competitions.
This is where she camped before winning the world half-marathon title and the recent World Cross-Country senior women's crown in Mombasa.
The athletes are also involved in community work.
For instance, Tanui has mobilised the people of his home location, Sugoi, to build a health centre. He recently held a free medical clinic for about 1,000 local children.
Tergat has an international role in community work; he is the patron of Athletes for a Better World and a World Food Programme ambassador against hunger, an assignment he was given in January 2004.
In addition to the support he provides to WFP and the Athletes for a Better World project, he runs his own foundation to help develop underprivileged children into future athletes.
Athletics Kenya says it also educates athletes on how to invest their earnings.
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