By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 24^th 2025)

He is A Champion

Yesterday, I went to see Vincent Suter Chemweno for the second time – the first time I was horrified by the conditions that he was living in. Suter is 89-years-young and somewhat frail. He cannot live an independent life any longer. He is a former athlete – a champion athlete from decades ago. He ran for Kenya before the country became independent. In the 1950s he won titles in his native Rift Valey.

Kenya was known from 1920 until independence as the Colony (or Protectorate) of Kenya. During that period Suter visited Cardiff as an athlete. He is believed to be the oldest surviving member of Kenya’s team at the Empire and Commonwealth Games of 1958. He won a medal for Kenya in Cardiff. Suter is the last living idol of the Father of Kenyan steeplechasing, the 1968 Olympic Games 3000m Steeplechase champion, Amos Biwott.

No Way to Treat A Champion

But Suter’s current plight is heart-rending. Kenya’s decades long tradition of producing élite athletes has a sad – tragic even – side. Suter is the living embodiment of that. He clearly needs medical help – it’s obvious to any who can see, but Kenya’s former athletes, especially the elderly ones, fare badly.

Whatever their achievements, and Suter was a winner – a medallist in the Empire and Commonwealth Games before his country was born in the modern era – there is no medical care provided for those above retirement age.

Suter now has medical and care needs. How would they be met – he couldn’t afford it and nor can his family? Doesn’t this man who gave his all representing Colony or Protectorate of Kenya[1] as Kenya was known before 1963 when it achieved independence, deserve recognition of his achievements, including for Kenya, and to know that he will be enabled to enjoy the rest of his life without worry?

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[1] It had been known as the British East Africa Protectorate from 1895-1920 and the Colony or Protectorate of Kenya until independence.