Slaughter of Sang a dark day for Kenya

On Athletics:For at least 20 years now Kenya has ruled the world in middle- and long-distance running, and mostly surrendered in the shorter distances. One of the exceptions was making the final of the 4x400-metre relay at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, though they finished last.

Kenya, not too unlike Ireland, never had any great tradition in races less than two laps of the track, and so this was a remarkably talented quartet. It included the 21-year-old Paul Ereng, who just five days earlier had won the gold medal in the 800 metres, and the 25-year-old Lucas Sang, who ran the second and fastest leg of 45.08 seconds, and also competed in the 400 metres.

Sang stuck with the event for several more years, and was also part of the Kenyan relay squad that made the final at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He then moved up to 800 metres, with limited success, although he did earn himself some good money as one of the most reliable pacemakers on the flourishing Grand Prix circuit.

Like the majority of Kenyan athletes, Sang invested that money back into his country on his retirement, buying a large wheat and maize farm close to his home town of Eldoret, on the western side of the Rift Valley - Kenya's great breeding ground for distance runners.

Sang became instrumental in the development of athletics in Eldoret and throughout Kenya. In 2000 he was elected treasurer of the National Association of Kenyan Olympians, a revered group, and was often invited to Kenya's many training camps to offer inspirational talks.

The most recent of those was just last month at St Patrick's High School in Iten, a half hour from Eldoret, at the invitation of the Cork-born Br Colm O'Connell, who has lived there since 1976. One of the godfathers of Kenyan running, Br O'Connell still holds training camps for junior athletes during the school holidays.

"We had about 40 young athletes present and Lucas was invited as our special guest on the closing evening," O'Connell recalls. "He really motivated them. Lucas was always reaching out to young athletes, trying to support them."

Two weeks later Sang was dead. The calamitous election of December 27th sparked some of its worst violence around Eldoret, particularly between the Kikuyu tribe - supporters of the re-elected president, Mwai Kibaki - and the Kalenjin tribe - supporters of the defeated challenger, Raila Odinga - and Sang is just one of the some 600 murdered in the period since.

Tension between these tribes has existed since the colonial days, when most of the Rift Valley area was inhabited by the Kalenjin. As the colonists left, the Kikuyu moved in. To this day the Kalenjin believe that land is theirs.

Kenya's recent violence, however, is not simply tribal, and it is definitely not, as CNN have stated, between a "majority" and "minority" tribe. In fact, Kenya is a polyglot nation of more than 30 ethnicities and 40 tribes, none of which are a demographic majority. The tribal violence of the past fortnight is the result of a bold power grab by a tight clique around the president, or as The Nation newspaper more accurately reported, "an effect of the crisis provoked by the rigged election, not its cause".

What makes the death of Lucas Sang all the more tragic is he was neither ethnic-minded nor particularly political. He had celebrated New Year's Eve with friends in Eldoret and was walking home that night when a gang of Kikuyus started throwing rocks and stones in their direction. Sang was struck on the head, and in case that didn't finish him, the gang then set fire to his body.

There were at least 19 other fatalities in the area that night.

The next day, the Kalenjin retaliated by killing close to 100 Kikuyus around Eldoret, including the more than 40 who had taken refuge at the Kenya Assemblies of God church.

Sang's body was later identified by Noah Ngeny, his close friend and 1,500-metre champion from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Athletes and politicians across Kenya expressed their anger at his death, his old team-mate Ereng calling it "one of the darkest hours in our national history", but the renewed violence of the past three days suggest it's had little or no effect in lessening the tension.

His murder also demonstrated that no one was safe from the violence, not even the famous runners, and as a result all the training camps around Eldoret remain shut. Any athletes who haven't already left the area train at their peril, usually early in the morning, and with no end to the violence in sight the main cross-country races of the season are cancelled.

Sporting disruption such as this may appear minor in the context of the overall humanitarian crisis, but nothing brings greater pride to Kenya than its prowess in distance running. Last summer's World Championships in Osaka was Kenya's most successful yet, their five gold medals beaten only by the US, and all of them, naturally, coming in races of at least two laps of the track.

It's too early to say if the unrest will upset Kenya's prospects for the Beijing Olympics, but it looks like it will. It's a sad and desperate time for the country. For admirers of distance running and beautifully free-striding athletes like Lucas Sang it's particularly hard to comprehend.