It’s the people that we meet that make a place, for us, the face of Kenya will always be that of Benard Langat’s. A long distance runner, hoping to make it onto the international scene, Benard graciously found time in the middle of his busy training schedule to show us around Nairobi. The following Q&A comes from a discussion we had with him during our time in Kenya.
Full Name: Benard Kibrono Langat
Born: Sironet, Kenya (Rift Valley Region)
Currently resides in: Nairobi, Kenya
Number of siblings: 8 (four brothers and four sisters), Benard is the oldest. The youngest is two years old.
Occupation: Professional long distance runner specializing in 10K and half marathon.
What are your long-term career goals?
I hope to be successful enough as a runner to provide money for my family to farm their land and buy more cows. I come from a poor family and I hope to be the light of my family and to provide whatever they need.
We have an upcoming presidential election in the U.S.. What are your views on the candidates?
If I could vote in the election I would vote for Barrack Obama. He is a fellow Kenyan, one of our descendents.
You recently lived through the turmoil and violence that followed the disputed Kenyan presidential election. Do you believe that the government can reach a resolution that is fair to all parties?
I don’t know, but I hope that the country can return to how things were before the violence started. Kenya is made up of a population of people from 42 different tribes and I hope that we can all love each other like brothers and sisters.
What tribe are you from?
Kipsigis
As a runner, can you explain why Kenyans are so fast?
Many of the country’s runners come from the Kalenjin tribe (Kipsigis are a sub-group of the Kalenjin). We have a long history of successful runners and we carry that mantle with us. Many of us grew up in rural areas where we don’t have transportation to go to school so we run. This informal training gives us an edge when we compete against international athletes. We are also encouraged to succeed so that we may assist our families and assist the poor people of our communities.
If you could travel to any other country in the world where would you go?
I should go to the United States because I have many friends there.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 and is filed under the people we meet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.