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Okayo: from Kisii's Keroka market to the Wall Street

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Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 08:04

Margaret Okayo on the way to victory in this year's London Marathon. From Keroka market to Wall Street in style.Very few ordinary people, and for a very good reason too, have any business being at the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street, the biggest bourse in the world, which, on an average, traded daily dollar value worth US$48.2 billion last month.

In its 204 year history, the NYSE has been inviting leaders and top personalities who have enriched humanity through accomplishments in their respective fields of endeavour to the podium for the symbolic gesture of ringing the bell to usher in or close trading. They have included presidents of Spain and Mexico; baseball hall-of-famee Hank Aaron, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali; astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot a spacecraft and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa to mention a few. Last October Margaret Okayo, a diminutive girl from the Keroka market which is either dusty or muddy depending on the weather and time of the year and famous for its pineapples trading, worth a few tens of thousands of shillings on a good day, strode into the NYSE podium to ring the bell for her second time in two years.

This was in honour of her winning the 2001 and 2003, New York Marathon. On the first occassion, shortly after the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, New Yorkers felt a need to lift their collective spirit. This came in the form of Okayo who had set a new course record of 2 hours 24 minutes 21 seconds. It was a big surprise for her too after having finished third the previous year. Little did she know winning was not everything. She realised post event public functions were just as important. On October 5, Okayo, in running track suit, made a brief speech at the NYSE podium and answered questions fielded by officials before ringing the bell to commence business in front of some of the world's richest speculators and brokers inbusiness suits.

Ten days later, the Duke of York, His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, was at the same podium to celebrate the first "UKwithNY" festival. This was the largest international initiative launched in New York City for almost 20 years. Maybe with proper guidance from investment experts or leading stock brokers, Margaret Okayo might one day do her own bit of speculation at the NYSE. Stock brokers in Wall Street are not be in short supply and the best ones are already familiar with this diminutive Kenyan girl who is also a Prisons Services officer. Without realising the implication of such an honour, certainly bestowed to very few foreigners, Okayo gives a broad smile and giggles. The magnitude of the event perhaps is yet to sink in. "Wall Street is big, so big," says Okayo, "bigger than Kenya Prisons headquarters," she adds, after a thoughtful silence while surveying her well kept work place on Capitol Hill, Nairobi, her eyes skyward. Light as a feather, actually 39kg and 4'5'' tall, Okayo, the champion marathoner enjoyed the attention people paid her at the NYSE and the other places she visited after winning the ING New York Marathon in 2001 and last year.

She was fascinated by the NYSE building. Wall Street and the United States. For her, visiting New York was a far-fetched dream come true. When reflecting on where she comes from, everything in New York is different. Buildings hugging the sky, big cars and large homes surrounded by white picket fences. Most New Yorkers love Okayo. Unlike other Kenyan athletes who enter the city's marathon race and disappear once they get their pay cheque, she stayed behind long enough to get to know her hosts better. This is different, thanks partly to her upbringing in a big family where food was not always guaranteed, and, when it was, there was nothing left to spare.

Four years ago she convinced her sponsors Fila to contribute towards the New York City Foundation in Brooklyn in the 'Run for Something Programme' Fila came up with the 100K Corporate Challenge and promised to donate Sh7.8 million to the City Foundation if their sponsored athletes won the men's and women's races. A back problem cost her a place in the winner's podium but the gesture was very appreciated. "It is always good to help others. In my village one person's misfortune is everybody's responsibility," she said this soon after being promoted to Chief Officer II, a rank which requires those under her to salute and pave way at Prisons Headquarters and all other Prisons establishment, last week. The 27-year-old Okayo has already reached the pinnacle of marathon running. When she won the 2002 Boston Marathon, she broke German Uta Pippig's eight year course record. But after a disappointing effort in Chicago the same year, when she settled for third, those close to her knew she would bounce back and continue with her record breaking feat. Last year she went to New York, her form still in doubt. Against all expectations, she won in a new course record of 2:22.31. This time together with Martin Lel, they did a lap of honour on the trading floor before joining Edwald Kist, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ING, who rang the bell.

ING Group N.V, the official sponsor of the New York Marathon, is a global financial institution that offers banking, insurance and asset management to approximately 60 million clients in 60 countries. Although always on the move, Okayo's second home abroad is a small village called Colombaro in Brescia, Italy where she visits every time after conquering a part of the world like the London Marathon three weeks ago. All athletes under Dr. Gabriele Rosa make a stopover in Colombaro where they have living quarters.

Okayo cooks for herself and buys fresh produce at the market, meat at butcheries and maize flour for ugali from the supermarket. Italian villagers stop to greet her, others wave and mimic her running style.It usually reminds her of her Kisii home where people live in one large community. She rates Kenya as the best country in the world and in particular her city neighbourhood in Nairobi West, a middle class suburb with one of the highest concentration of beer bars in the city, vegetable vendors maintain their clients with religious zeal because of stiff competition. They chat to their customers, mostly house helps, very casually. None of late is driven to conversation than Okayo, a person they have become accustomed to through television and the media.

Many are awed by her simplicity, usually in track suits and sneakers. Her food shopping is also eclectic and elementary-vegetables and fruits in open air markets. . Not the standard style for one of the top paid Kenyan athletes expected to be spotted at top name supermarkets. Of course, those knowledgeable of the constitutions that make distance runners, quickly understand the need to eat fresh vegetables and fruit. "Just add a bit of unga and other basic neccessities and I am fine," says Okayo who is not in a hurry to quit running or start a family. She says everything has its own time. Vegetable vendors are also eager to stay on Okayo's good side especially since they also hope to benefit from her travels abroad by learning about such mundane matters like academic opportunities for children.

Okayo, who recently won the London Marathon under pouring rain and strong head wind however, declines politely, explaining she is only a Prison officer still struggling to make ends meet. Athletics is simply a hobby..Unlike her neighbours living in high-rent flats, Okayo has remained in her humble Prisons staff quarters since 1997. Money, she says is hard to come by. Though single, she has a huge family responsibility. She pays school fees for nine siblings and supports her peasant farming parents. This does not mean she does not have an enterprising mind. When she finally settles, she wants to live in her own house and build many others to rent out. Since making her debut in marathon running in 1996, Okayo has developed an insatiable desire for winning and breaking records. Okayo's first big race was the 2001 Rock 'n' Roll marathon in San Diego in a new course record of 2:27.05. The previous year she had been third in New York. After this, she was soon forgotten, which served her well since being in the public limelight has not been her style. When she returned to New York last October and again smashed her own record, organisers of the London Marathon, the biggest and richest in the world, fell over themselves in pursuit of her signature. She did not disappoint them. Okayo was born in Keroka, in 1976. At primary school she was not an outstanding athlete. Things began to happen when she joined Itierio Mixed School. She had to run to school to avoid being punished. She became more interested in running as a sport when she saw the others run.

Upon completion of fourth form in 1993, Okayo was influenced by the success of athletes from her home area like Philip Mosima, Josphat Machuka and Delilah Asiago. In 1996, she won the Prisons cross country championships and attracted the attention of Dr. Rosa who enlisted her in his Discovery Kenya programme the following year. Dr. Rosa has trained the best marathoners in the world including world record holder and five times world cross country champion Paul Tergat. He also took Okayo to the USA to train with the Fila group under Fred Treseler between 1999 and 2000. In 2004 she won the London Marathon race on her debut and proved her growing status as one of the best in the world and favourite for the gold medal in the Athens Olympics in three months time.

Success in the marathon has produced a corresponding recognition in her place of work. Last Friday Okayo was promoted to the post of a Chief Officer II by Prisons Commissioner Abraham Kamakil who has realised Okayo and her three colleagues-world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba, Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion Selina Kosgei, Susan Chepkemei and three time world cross country short course Edith Masai-have single-handedly provided positive publicity to the service. Obviously Okayo will take a sabbatical after the Athens Olympics until next year when she might decide to defend her London Marathon title.

And the betting Britons could make a tidy amount because it is no longer a gamble to bet on Okayo. In 1999 she finished second on her debut in Chicago behind compatriot Joyce Chepchumba. Six months later, Okayo set a new course record in the Rock "n" Roll in 2:27:05.

Come 2001 and the New York Marathon through the five boroughs course was her's for the taking. Eight months later, she smashed the Boston course record. Then last October, New York fell. In London next year, Okayo could just reclaim the ultimate prize – the world record – taken away from Kenya by Paula Radcliffe last year. The Briton has since been too dogged by a series of injuries to meet her Kenyan rivals in a women's only race. That will be in Athens. Okayo's target is only known to her. Though refusing to admit it, her sight is set on Radcliffe's 2:15.25 world record. "It is achievable in London," she said.

Radcliffe is yet to race with Okayo and the duel is a mouth-watering prospect. Having sampled her victory in London with friends and family here in Kenya, it is time for Okayo to move again, first to Manchester for a road race on May 23 before returning to Brescia for training unless directed to do other things like a promotional shoots for the Fila brand like she did in 2002 after the New York Marathon when she helped launch the 2003 Fila summer performance collection in the American market. The apparel and footwear collection featured a bold graphic look that incorporates Fila's traditional colours of Fila Red and Fila Navy with white.

Okayo and Fila's elite athletes competed in the Fila Racer K1 – an extremely light racing shoe that features Fila's Speed Tech technology, specifically made for the champions. Okayo's shoe, redesigned with ultra-light breathable mesh upper reinforced by non-stretch synthetic materials, also featured a sole unit with a Speed Tech accumulator to promote running efficiency while maintaining cushioning and stability which Okayo used to the maximum last year in New York. Okayo's singlet and shorts were made of the performance fabric, Climateam Micromesh.