President Mwai Kibaki (left), Prime Minister Raila Odinga (centre) and Pamela Jelimo at official welcome (© Stephen Mudiari)
Pamela Jelimo didn’t know what hit her after her SN Brussels Airlines flight landed at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport shortly after 10.30 pm on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old Olympic 800m champion and $1 Million ÅF Golden League Jackpot winner has suddenly turned out to be Kenya’s biggest celebrity following her brilliant maiden season on the global track and field stage.
Senior Kenyan government officials, including top Cabinet Ministers, were at the airport to receive her upon her first visit back home after winning the Olympic Gold medal in Beijing, strangely Kenya’s first ever women’s gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Stretch limousines, police guard and a battery of journalists in tow were scenes unfamiliar to the girl from the modest Kiptamok Village in Kaptumo, Nandi South District, who has wisely decided to bank her substantial prize money in Monaco, the Mediterranean principality which is the home of the IAAF.
And more was to come when Jelimo, also the senior Area and World junior record holder (1:54.01) in the two-lap race, was driven to the most important address in Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki’s official Harambee House office, in downtown Nairobi.
Still dazed, Jelimo was ushered into the office where the President and Prime Minister Raila Odinga – erstwhile sworn foes after the disputed Kenyan presidential elections last December which Raila claimed Kibaki’s team had stolen – were on hand to meet her.
The disputed presidential polls threw Kenya into its worst ever tribal and sectional chaos that the country would love to forget in a hurry. Seeing Jelimo pose with the two politicians, who are now happily united and working together in a Coalition Government brokered by former United Nations Secretary General Koffi Anan, gave Kenyans a sense of satisfaction; Athletics had played a major role in bringing the Kenyan nation together and Jelimo has very much been part of the cast.
“The President told me that he was happy with my achievement and also told me that the government would continue to advocate the promotion of talent in the country in all sports,” Jelimo said after her 20-minute closed-door meeting with Kenya’s two most powerful men. “The President also told me that he was happy due to the fact that I had made Kenya be known more to the outside world.”
"I am proud to be a Kenyan," said Jelimo at the function which received headline news on all the five national television channels. "When I was out there, I was running for my country and wish to thank the Kenyan people for their tremendous support they accorded us."
Although President Kibaki did not make an address, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, speaking for the Coalition Government, said: “I’m pleased with Pamela’s victory as I know that it has put Kenya in a very important position. Our country has now become popular, thanks to the victory,” said Raila. “Sports are one of the ways of making the youth unite and compete against each other.”
Jelimo’s home, that features two semi-permanent houses - costing much less than a combined US$1,000 to construct - is now set for a huge facelift, thanks to the cash the teenage sensation has raked in from her track earnings this season.
Her brothers and sisters, some of whom move around without shoes as her family – of nine brothers and sisters from a single mother, former athlete Rhoda Jeptoo Keter, - cannot afford them, now have a bright future ahead of them.
Besides the cash she won from prize money, appearance fees and the GL jackpot, the Kenyan Government and local companies gave Jelimo cash awards totaling 3.55 million Kenya Shillings (US$52,205).
A local insurance company also offered Jelimo a Life Insurance cover worth Sh1 million (US$15,000).
Kenya’s latest heroine was then flown to Eldoret where seemingly endless festivities were lined up for her from Eldoret town to her village in Kiptamok Village in Kaptumo, Nandi South District of the athletics-rich Kenyan Rift Valley.
What about her job as a police constable attached to the Embu Provincial Police Headquarters in Eastern Kenya?
“We will give her time off to be with her family and to celebrate the fruits of her hard work before she can report back to duty,” Kenya Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told curious journalists.
But Jelimo is keen to report back to duty and does not want her newfound status and wealth to derail her from her vision.
“I will continue to serve in the police force for as long as I’m of service,” she says. “What will happen if, God forbid, I get injured and I’m unable to run again?
Jelimo is definitely not about to get carried away by the added attention after her first big season on the track!
Elias Makori for the IAAF
additional quotes Peter Njenga