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Return my house - Maiyoro
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 18 June 2009 06:21
Nyandika, 78, will go down in the annals of Kenya’s sports history as among the handful athletes, who represented the East African nation at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada.That was the very first time Kenya, then a British colony, took part in any global competition.
He finished fifth in the five mile, because he started the race two laps late. He did not understand English and his coach, a Mr Evans, had gone for a short call moments to the start of the race. Evans convinced organisers to allow him take part and Maiyoro, running barefoot, chased the runners like a hunter going after an antelope, as whites wondered "what this baboon was up to."
Back home, the colonial officers, persuaded by Senior Chief Musa Nyandusi, built a four-bedroomed house for him inside the Gusii Stadium.
Training ground
"The colonialists proposed that I stay near the training ground (Gusii Stadium) and away from women and illicit brews in the village, fearing they could ruin my promising career in sports," Nyandika recalls.
He remembers too well that initially the council wanted to build the house for him at his rural home, but shelved the idea after they realised it would not benefit him in sports development. At the time, a Mr Skipper was the colonial governor for Kisii District and doubled up as the chairman of the Kisii Council, Nyandika told FeverPitch outside the house in the middle of the ownership dispute.
Skipper, Senior Chief Nyandusi and then town clerk Paul Mboya handed to him the house that was built barely five metres from the track. The world-renowned athlete occupied the house with his family until 1965, a year after he quit running. He shifted to Nyanchwa Estate in the outskirts of Kisii Town where he rented a council house at Sh300 a month and rented out his at Sh700 a month to the current occupant, a retired teacher.
Impressed with his success in the world of sport, the council lured him with employment and designated him as a Stadium Manager in 1950. He worked with the council until 1998. His tribulations started when he retired. All along his tenant who had been submitting rent to him without failure suddenly stopped. "I asked him what was amiss. He said the council had written to him to start remitting rent to them," Nyandika quipped.
"Everybody knows the house is mine. I have been renovating it, but for the last 10 years the building has been abandoned and is in a very sorry state," he observed. The council never wrote to Nyandika on the change of ownership. Although, he lacks documents to indicate the house belongs to him, Nyandika maintains he was its rightful owner and only needs to formalise the same through intervention of Government.
President moi
At one time, during a public rally at Gusii Stadium, retired President Moi and then influential minister Simeon Nyachae thanked the council for recognising Nyandika and building him the house. "Nyachae used to stay in this very house when training at the stadium. His father used to bring him food here," Nyandika recalls, adding that Nyachae was a talented short distance runner.
The ageing Nyandika now wants the council to stop interfering with his property and give back all rent submitted to them by his tenant. "This is the only reward I got for doing my country proud. This shows how far we can go to frustrate talent," he laments, adding that up and coming athletes’ moral would be killed by such developments.
The current occupier of the house, Mr Matara Ombweke confirmed to FeverPitch that initially he paid monthly rent of Sh700 to Nyandika, which he later hiked to Sh1,200. Ombweke, whom we got while operating his a carpentry workshop outside the house, said since the year 2000, he has been remitting a monthly rent of Sh2,000 to the council.
Produce documents
"I have stayed in this house for over 20 years, but what I know is that it now belongs to the council," Ombweke, who retired two years ago, said. Kisii Town Clerk, Kennedy Otwori, challenged Nyandika to produce documents showing he was the owner of the house in dispute.
He maintained the house was council property, but promised to conduct investigations, noting the issue was handled many years ago. "But my understanding and position is that he was allocated the house by virtue of being an employee of the council," he explained, adding that council records showed he was accorded the house to enable him oversee activities in his capacity as Stadium Manager.
The clerk says the politicians may have made Nyandika to believe the house was his to gain political mileage. Nyandika is appealing to Sports Minister Hellen Sambili and her Local Government counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi to intervene in the matter. Today, Nyandika is undoubtedly one of the many forgotten and unsung Kenya heroes - and that irks him most.
