In a sport with a weak statistics and record-keeping culture, the death of Francis Orangi Nyatome, the only known person with a proper institutional memory on Kenyan athletics stretching 60 years back, will be felt for a long time.
Nyatome passed on September 5 at the age of 86. For nearly six decades, he served Kenyan athletics in many positions, including race starter, Athletics Kenya Public Relations Officer, museum curator, and team manager for Kenya in many international athletics competitions.
He was an athletics statistician of repute, knew bits and pieces of information, and documented performances of Kenyan athletes and records of the past 60 years, which he fed to local and international media and the general public for free, mostly without referring to any document, until ill health took a heavy toll on him three years ago.
Known in Kenya athletics circles as ‘mzee Kijana’, Nyatome was a walking encyclopaedia of athletics, and easily identified potential future stars from young runners after simply tracking their performances inside one season.
But most importantly, almost everyone in local athletics relied on him for technical rules interpretation from the World Athletics pocket-size “Little Red Rule Book” or ‘bible of technical rules’, which is often revised annually.
He kept abreast with athletics rules, being also a certified Technical Official from World Athletics. He also officiated in races, and trained trainers in other African countries. This ensured that no track disputes would go past the jury of appeal in any athletics meeting he was presiding over, as Joseph Kinyua, former treasurer of Athletics Kenya, recalled.
“He was a good man, well versed in all technical rules of athletics and also a good administrator who played a major role in my election as Athletics Kenya treasurer in 1996 while serving as the secretary of Nairobi AK region. Even in meetings and outside, Nyatome was also the gentleman who avoided controversies,” said Kinyua.
Kinyua recalls that he worked closely with Nyatome and the top leadership of Athletics Kenya to create the association’s museum, where Nyatome was to serve as the curator from 2002 until he retired from athletics in 2001.
He was a worthy investment because everybody who set foot on the museum at Riadha House, young or old, left satisfied and enriched with knowledge impacted by the trainer teacher Nyatome was.
Unknown to many, Nyatome was a gun carrier as the official custodian of Athletics Kenya starter’s gun,a real weapon which fires blanks and can be used for criminal activities in bad hands.
But his outlook and appearance was that of a long-suffering old man who would never raise any suspicion. Most importantly, few knew of this possession, or the old preacher man leather bag which always had several boxes of blanks even at Mountain View Estate in Nairobi where he had built his family a palatial home and neighbouring Kangemi where he never feared to venture as the ‘ordinary mzee wa mbio,” as he was known.
“The walking encyclopedia of athletics has rested. Rest well legend Francis Nyatome,” said Joyce Odhiambo, a former international sprinter and technical official of Nairobi.
“Rest well,” said Wilmina Mayende, another veteran sport administrator and technical official who has been carrying on Nyatome’s legacy of managing the welfare of the Nairobi-based Athletics Kenya family.
“Nyatome has been our guiding light for over 40 years in Nairobi,” Athletics Kenya Starehe Sub- county chairman, Florence Theuri, said.
“We have been under Nyatome for as long as I can remember," she said.
Nyatome had many qualities and also had very good reflexes and body coordination as the official starter and was known never to cause any false start with the gun.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Francis Nyatome, a pioneering race starter in Kenya, who was instrumental in propelling the growth of athletics in our country,” Athletics Kenya said in a statement.
“His enduring role as a race starter was deeply heartfelt, stemming from a passion not only for athletics but for all sports. Nyatome carried out his responsibilities with unwavering loyalty to the regulations of the sport, driven by a desire to see athletics flourish.
He was a darling of the media, and he served well as the Public Relations Officer of Athletics Kenya until 2004, when he was replaced by Peter Angwenyi.
He continued providing background information to fellow athletics officials, especially during national meetings like national trials and championships before major games.
Nyatome brought corporate freshness in local athletics and remained a pillar of the sport in Nairobi even as he served as a senior manager at Kenya Airways, and at first East Africa Airways. He was without the airs of a high-flier, and preferred to donate his complimentary tickets to his family from Kenya Airways as he always felt content.
Born in Nyaribari Chache, Kisii County, in 1938 in a family of 12, Nyatome honed his skills in athletics management at Riondong’a Elementary School, where he started his primary education in 1951 and sat for his intermediate KAPE Examination in 1957.
He later joined Iterio High School before proceeding to Siriba Teacher training College, where he trained as a P2 teacher and was immediately posted to Nyanchwa Intermediate School.
After his teaching practice, he proceeded to India to study aeronautical engineering at Central Training Institute for Instructors. He returned to Kenya in 1976 and joined the East Africa Airlines.
He was amongst pioneer employees of Kenya Always in 1977, and remained in employment until 1993 when he retired but concentrated full time in athletics management at Nairobi. He made sure his employer's privileged position never distinguished him from the rest of the crowd.
