Henry Wanyoike – Kikuyu’s Run of Hope

Henry Wanyoike is sitting in his office when Paul’s phone rings. Three times we hear the dial tone before Paul answers. “Hi,” he says. Henry and Paul are currently working together on a project in their home country of Kenya. But now is a good time for a break, says Paul, it’s 11:00 a.m. Paul passes his phone to Henry.

When he was 20 years old, the athletic teenager went blind. A month earlier, Wanyoike had suffered a stroke. To save his life, doctors gave him medication. His body seemed to recover – until the morning of May 1, 1995, when suddenly he couldn’t see. “I went to bed that night a healthy person and then lost 95% of my vision overnight,” he says. “I thought I was having a bad dream.”

Wanyoike went to the eye clinic in Kikuyu, the runner’s hometown. There, doctors told him they couldn’t save his eyesight. The then 20-year-old became depressed. “I was afraid I would have to go beg on the streets,” he recalls. As a child, he saw how people with disabilities were excluded from society and sank into poverty. “These thoughts were so painful that I didn’t know how to go on with my life.”

For three years, Wanyoike searched for answers. To be able to become a professional runner one day – that was not on his mind at the time. His talent, however, was undisputed.

In 1998, the former running hope of Kenya finally met Petra Verweyen, an employee of the Christoffel Mission for the Blind. She helped him to be admitted to a rehabilitation center. “Thanks in part to Petra, I very, very slowly began to accept the new me,” says Wanyoike.

There, in the center, Wanyoike was the youngest. The people around him supported the young man wherever they could – and made him start running again. “However,” he recalls, “things didn’t go well at all for the first few weeks.” Although he had a companion, Wanyoike kept falling down. His knees were bloody, his anxiety level high. “Instead of running properly, I was worried about hurting myself.” It took months for Wanyoike to learn to run with his companion, the guide.

When that worked out, things started to go really well for Wanyoike. In 1999, he won his first para race in Kenya. He has kept the trophy to this day. “This win showed me that I could do it, run professionally and win medals.” The dream of gold finally came true a year later in Sydney.

In Kenya, Wanyoike had previously qualified – it was the same para race as in 1999 – for the Paralympic Games in Australia. “I was able to represent my country at the biggest and most important sporting event in the world,” Wanyoike says. A goal he had already had when he could still see.

While the guide slumped to the ground, Wanyoike danced and celebrated on the tartan track. The video showing the last meters of this 5,000-meter run went around the world. This really kicked off Wanyoike’s career.

“Shortly after the Paralympic Games in Sydney, I had already set myself new goals,” the runner says today. Instead of 5,000 meters, Wanyoike now focused on 10,000-meter, half marathon and marathon distances. Successfully.

In 2004, he won gold at the Paralympic Games in Athens with two new world record times over 5,000 and 10,000 meters. In the same year, he set the world record for a blind runner in the half marathon with 1:10:26 hours. A year later, the marathon world record followed in Hamburg with 2:31:31 hours.

“Paul has become much more than my guide,” Henry Wanyoike says today. “He’s like a brother to me.” Paul nods. He sees it that way, too. The two spend almost all day together. When they’re not training, Paul helps Henry work at his foundation.

Henry founded the Henry Wanyoike Foundation back in 2007. After receiving support from the Christoffel Mission for the Blind, he wanted to give something back. With his foundation, Wanyoike now supports disadvantaged children in his hometown of Kikuyu and throughout Kenya.

For these children in particular, Wanyoike is a great role model, an approachable national hero. From his first prize money, he bought knitting machines and hired people from his home country who were also blind. Wanyoike showed them how to operate the machines and knit sweaters. Wanyoike is now giving back the hope that the rehabilitation center gave him in the late 1990s.

With his foundation, he supports children and families who are poor or disadvantaged. Together with his employees, he has set up various programs for them to improve their education, health, or social status. For example, they award scholarships for schools, run their own kindergarten, and draw attention to the disadvantages disabled people face in Kenya.

The running star from Kikuyu has four sons. They and his wife support him in every way they can – not only at the foundation, but also at home. They live together on a small farm. “We are mainly self-sufficient,” says Wanyoike. With his wife or children, he feeds the cows and mucks out stalls. He needs their help; it doesn’t work all on his own.

This also applies to the many races Wanyoike competes in with his guide Paul. Flights, travel expenses, and accommodation could not be paid for with the premiums alone, he explains. Although he still runs fabulous times at the age of 47, the sighted top stars take center stage. “If we didn’t have friends in Europe to support us,” Wanyoike says, “we wouldn’t be able to run on the world’s biggest tracks.” Because blind runners never travel alone. Always by their side: their guides.