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Victor Chesang has yet to make an impact on KU’s track and cross country teams, but that was the least of his worries when he was stuck in Kenya.
Victor’s mother lived in Kikuyu territory. For a member of the Kalenjin tribe like Victor, that meant imminent danger in the aftermath of Kenya’s presidential election Dec. 27. The Kikuyu were the ruling tribe, aligned with re-elected President Mwai Kibaki. But Kibaki’s victory came under great scrutiny from the country’s 41 other tribes that wanted change. Soon, Kenya would be headed toward civil war.
Victor’s Kalenjin tribe was one of many that had pushed the Kikuyu out of their villages, towns and cities after the election, which was believed to have been rigged.
On that January morning, as he went to buy groceries, Victor Chesang had never felt so out of place in his native land. Growing up, he had not really taken much pride in being Kalenjin. Victor believed in Kenya, and he considered himself a Kenyan above all else. That allegiance to country over tribe may have saved his life. As he walked into the Kikuyu market a quarter of a mile from his apartment, he was joined by four Kikuyu friends.
Victor traversed the market. Looking for vegetables and bread, he saw posters. If you are from the Kalenjin tribe, you should move out. Victor knew what that meant. If he was discovered, he could be shot with a bow and arrow, cut up by a machete. It was important that he didn’t talk at all. The Kikuyu would have noticed his accent.
“It was scary,” Victor says, “because you didn’t know what was going to happen. Anything could happen in a minute. We had seen on television what is happening outside to the tribes. They’ll start killing people.”
Victor’s Kikuyu friends helped him make the purchase without being detected. Victor left the market relieved, a sack of tomatoes in hand, and arrived at home without a problem. Still, as the long days inside his mother’s apartment became sleepless nights, Victor began to wonder: Would he ever get back to Kansas?
•••
Victor Chesang boarded the plane for Kenya with big plans. When he came back to Lawrence after the Christmas holiday, he would continue his training and become the runner he believed himself to be, the one that Kansas distance coach Doug Clark expected him to be.
In his first 2 1/2 years on campus, Victor struggled to make an impact in both cross country and track. It was surprising. Victor’s uncles, Benson and Matthew Chesang, had been stars at Kansas and Kansas State, respectively. During 2003-06, Benson won two Big 12 cross country titles and finished seventh at the NCAA championships. Plus, some of the greatest long-distance runners have been not only Kenyan, but also Kalenjin.
What most people didn’t know, though, was that Victor had never run for sport until he arrived at KU in the fall of 2005. Sure, Victor ran. But everybody runs in Kenya.
“There is no mode of transportation,” Victor says. “Just your legs. When you’re a kid, you get used to that.”
As a boy, he ran the 2 kilometers to school every day from his home in Eldama Ravine, a village of 10,000 in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Sometimes, he’d run back and forth just to get his lunch. Of course, other boys would run much farther than that.
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