A Kenyan marathoner from Uasin Gishu County Benjamin Chepkwony has been forced to seek shelter under a tree in a public park in Vientiane, Laos Republic for months.
His family is now appealing for help to evacuate him from the South Eastern Asian country.
Chepkwony hails from Kapseret Constituency. He is reported to have left Kenya on December 4, 2019, to for the Vientiane Marathon, according to an athlete friend Enock Kigen.
His plight came to the fore on Tuesday evening with a social media post triggering pleas from Kenyans to the government to help him out.
Uasin Gishu communications director Silas Tarus said the county government is planning to facilitate the athlete’s return to Kenya after his photos were shared on social media.
Chepkwony’s family they have tried bringing him back but their efforts have been futile.
However, his elder brother Noah Chepkwony said that they have spent Ksh800,000 and bought his air ticket back to Kenya but he has refused to come back.
“Our brother went to Laos to compete and we are worried that he has found bad company and may have plunged into drug addiction,” Noah told the Standard.
“We have sent between Sh800,000 to Sh1m for his air ticket but he has refused to return to Kenya,” he said adding that Chepkwony has allegedly been asking for money to renew his visa and purchase an air ticket but switches of his phone immediately he gets the money.
Noah averred that in some of the photos and videos that the family has come across, his brother is seen having a good time, most of which he spends drinking with “some men of West African descent”.
He is afraid that Chepkwony could be battling depression miles away from home
“As a family, we have done a lot to help our brother return home but he has been giving excuses whenever we send money to enable him get a ticket. At some point, he said he wanted to renew his visa and continue participating in races. He also told us that he wanted to go to Indonesia and China but we discovered he was squandering the money in drugs,” Noah narrated.
He asserted that they have run out of options and asked the government to evacuate him.
Uasin Gishu communications director Silas Tarus on Wednesday said that they are making plans to have him back in the country.