The Forgotten Champion – Solution of the Vincent Suter Chemweno Conundrum (Part One)
The Forgotten Champion – The Vincent Suter Chemweno Conundrum
September 6, 2025The Forgotten Champion – Solution of the Vincent Suter Chemweno Conundrum (Part Two)
September 8, 2025The Forgotten Champion – Solution of the Vincent Suter Chemweno Conundrum (Part One)
By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (September 4th 2025)
Vincent Suter Chemweno – Enough is Enough!
Recently we highlighted the plight of Vincent Suter Chemweno (see The Forgotten Champion – The Vincent Suter Chemweno Conundrum at https://empowersmag.com/empowersmagwp/2025/09/06/the-forgotten-champion-the-vincent-suter-chemweno-conundrum/).
It was worse than I had indicated – far worse. Kenya does not have a National Health Service. Even the elderly and desperately needful cannot get care unless they pay for it regardless of the need. Inability to pay can be a death sentence – Nigel Farage can keep his health plans nightmare for his friends and supporters.
Suter is 89-years-old. He has no way of paying for the medical insurance he needs and nor has his family. They can’t pay either, and they are also affected by caring for him – it is a full-time commitment, which means employment prospects are bleak. They, and more importantly, Vincent, depends on charity which up to now has been scarce.
You cannot see his plight and not be moved and call yourself human.
When I saw it, I knew something had to be done, and if I didn’t play a part in it, the odds are it would not have been done. I also knew I can’t change the world on my own, or even his situation. Fortunately, Vincent has allies who care about him.
Former Athletes Rally to Suter’s Aid
At its Converse Meeting of September 1st, the Veteran Athletes Association (VAA) announced the projects that it would pursue in the following year. Kenya’s first Olympic champion in the race that became the signature race of Kenyan athletics, the 3000 metres Steeplechase, Amos Biwott,[1] and the great Kipchoge Keino applauded as former Marathon champion, Simon Biwot, announced a project aimed at supporting athletes in need.
Vincent Suter Chemweno will be the poster-boy of this struggle for compassion. We had visited Suter previously. It had been decided rapidly by the VAA that he had to be helped. Biwot – a caring champion for the veteran athletes – announced that care for veteran athletes in need would be a priority of the Association over the next year. It would start with Vincent Suter Chemweno.
[1] Biwott won the Kenya’s first gold medal in the 3000 metres Steeplechase at México’s Olympic Games in 1968. The late Benjamin Kojo took the silver medal. Kojo was the first Kenyan to compete in this race at the Olympic Games four years earlier in Tokyo’s first Olympiad.
