The whole world held its breath on Saturday morning. The excitement was reverberating in every part of the world as one man was going to take human endurance to another level. Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge was going to attempt to set a world record by running the marathon in under two hours. The hype was successful and everyone was all ears and the eyes peeled on their television sets and computers. Here was a man who was challenging the whole world, that the human spirit has no limit. What he was about to attempt was considered impossible, beyond human capacity. The kind of attention it attracted was compared to the first landing on the moon. And just like Neil Armstrong was adopted by the whole world, Kipchoge was everyone’s hero, not just Kenya’s. To top it all off, Eliud Kipchoge’s humility amidst all the international limelight had no measure; he was just another East African taking the bull by the horns. Yes, it was time for East Africa to shine coming just a day after another illustrious son of the region won the Nobel Peace Prize. We just missed out on a hat trick of East African victories as another Kenyan product, playwright Ngugi wa Thi’ongo was by-passed for the Nobel Literature Prize. But the current new rush of adrenaline was triggered by one small man who did not believe in limits. To quote him: “I am very excited about the months of good preparation to come and to show the world that when you focus on your goal, when you work hard and when you believe in yourself, anything is possible”. One is tempted to suspect that he was borrowing from a book of another “Kenyan”, Barack Obama, who coined the word: “Yes we can!” that galvanized the world a decade ago. Definitely this week East Africa – and by association, Rwanda – was on fire. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
