Almost a decade after the highlight of his track career, 2008 Beijing Olympics 800m champion, Wilfred Bungei has entered a new race… a political one.
The 36 years old is vying for a Member of Parliament seat in his home area of Emgwen in Kenya’s North Rift.
“There are a lot of similarities between the two. One thing I am learning in politics is there’s need for discipline and putting in hard work, which I did in athletics. The challenge though is unlike athletics where you trained and then competed against others the terrain of politics is very unpredictable” said Wilfred Bungei, Retired Athlete, Kenya
The former two lap race runner only began to court the idea of being a member of parliament 11 months ago.
“In 2008 when I returned as team captain of Kenya’s Olympic team many people asked me if I would ever think of going into politics I said – Hell no, so I never thought I would join. But it reached a point when my constituents came to me and said we think you can represent us well and its been a rollercoaster ride since then but one I have enjoyed” said Wilfred Bungei
For Bungei however his post-athletics life hasn’t been very smooth. After a decade competing at the highest level, he battled alcoholism in his early retirement days.
“I was in athletics and never touched alcohol, save for the occasional glass of wine. And then when I retired there was a vaccum and that is when I hit the bottle and my life hit rock bottom it almost cost me my life but after six weeks of a program I learned there’s more to life…” said Wilfred Bungei
Now he hopes to use his life lesson to bring change to his community.
“I have realized there are many youth who have resorted to alcohol due to unemployment and I want to be an inspiration to them.” Said Wilfred Bungei
The first step to his parliamentary campaign is to win the primaries within his political party of choice.
It took Wilfred Bungei 10 years in his athletics career for him to realise his dream of becoming an Olympic champion. Now as he turns to a political career he can only hope it won’t take the people of Emgwen to make him realise his ambition of being a MP.
