FIRST LADY KENYATTA RUNS TO CURB MATERNAL, INFANT DEATHS

#Kenya at London Marathon

A Campaign aiming to create awareness and raise funds to tackle issues that affect maternal and child health and mother to child transmission of HIV, is what First Lady Margaret Kenyatta had when she first launched the Beyond Zero Campaign.

On Sunday evening, the first family scored several firsts in London, with Mrs. Margaret Kenyatta participating in one of the world’s elite athletics events and a sitting president on the sidelines to cheer her on.

  A grueling 42-km race; it started at 10.30 am local time when most of us Kenyans were attending church and she was still running by the time most of us here at home were starting to plan for supper.

Her participation was part of the campaign that aims to raise 3.6m pounds to buy mobile clinics for all the 47 counties to increase access to better health.

Covering 300km in high altitude training, 21 km at the Nairobi First Lady’s marathon, 6-day training and an acclimatization period in London, was all part of the epic preparations for the London Marathon. Running for 7 hours nonstop is no walk in the park, but neither is preventing about 113, 500 infant and maternal deaths in a poor country such as Kenya.

But with the limelight on the First Lady, the spotlight too turned for historic firsts for Kenya at the marathon. Kenyan athletes made history with the first and second places in both men’s and women’s races going to Kenyans. Both Wilson Kipsang and Edna Kiplagat won.

Mrs. Kenyatta could as well be very well on her way into the World’s Guinness Book of Records. With a record of sorts, Mrs. Kenyatta has been quoted in the local media saying she is not in the marathon for nay records but purely to create awareness and raise funds towards her campaign.

By Embukane Vincent Libosso.