By Peter Njenga,

The Daily Nation, Kenya -

NAIROBI, January 8, 2007 - Mushir Salem Jawher, previously a Kenyan known as Leonard Mucheru, was a month ago hailed a national hero in Bahrain for winning a gold medal in the 15th Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar.

Last month in Doha it was a glorious moment for the tiny oil-rich nation which won several track medals, its first at a global competition thanks to imports from Kenya and Ethiopia.

Until 2003 Mucheru, who hails from Tigoni near Limuru, 40km west of Nairobi, had resigned to fate. But a local fixer introduced him to scouts from Bahrain who were interested in athletes willing to denounce their citizenship for promises of financial rewards if they brought glory to their new master.

Life changed for the better to a man who has taste for good things in life.
After the silver medal in the Doha Asian Games, Mucheru was rewarded handsomely and returned to Tigoni to enjoy his Christmas before embarking on preparations for the World Championships in athletics this coming August in Osaka, Japan.

But in a dramatic turn of events on Friday, Mucheru the national hero was hounded out of Bahrain in a most unusual way as a villain who had betrayed his country. Authorities stripped him of his citizenship for competing in an international marathon race in Israel, a country with no ties with the oil-rich Middle East nation. He also became the first Arab to compete in a marathon race in Israeli history.

Worse, people in the Bahrain Athletics Association who considered him a national treasure did not have the courtesy of informing him of this drastic action. They even refused to answer his numerous phone calls seeking a clarification after learning from friends that he was no longer welcome in a country he considered home.

Instead, the authorities issued a statement carried by Reuters news agency on Saturday which stated: “This is outside the rules and he went to Israel without telling anyone”, Mohammed Abdul Jalal, the head of the Bahrain Athletics Association, told Reuters news agency.

The Bahrain Athletic Association said it had received news that a Bahraini national had competed in Israel with “shock and regret”.

“A committee of sport and government authorities decided to strike Mr Jawher’s name off the sport union records and revoke his Bahraini nationality", the statement said.

It said Mr Jawher entered Israel with his Kenyan passport and that the runner had “violated the laws of Bahrain”.

Mucheru was acting yesterday like a fugitive on the run and soon went into hiding after the Nation broke the sad news to him in his home town of Limuru.

More trouble awaits Mucheru at the Kenyan Immigration Department, who according to a BBC report, entered the Jewish state using a Kenyan passport, a document he was supposed to have surrendered three years ago when he denounced his birth right. The Immigration could not comment on his fate until today when his file will be perused.

What remained unclear was how the government would treat the Mucheru case. In Limuru, Mucheru was in a state of shock, bordering  on panic.

“I am in shock and I cannot comment on anything because I know nothing“, said Mucheru who was in the company of another defector, Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Stephen Cherono), the 3000 metres steeplechase world champion from Qatar who was last year held overnight at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for falsifying information on his Kenyan entry visa. “I was never told it was illegal to enter Israel. I really don’t know what to do”.

 
After consulting with friends who offered him all sorts of advice, many of them ridiculous, Mucheru promised to return with his lawyers to issue a comprehensive statement before disappearing and switching off his mobile.

Shaheen said he was equally shocked as he was not aware that they are not supposed to have anything to do with Israel.

This was a meek Mucheru, unlike the chest thumping runner who told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday of having been “very proud” of running in Israel. He was quoted as saying Bahrain was a “free country” and “people should live together in harmony”.

“When I decided to come I didn’t know it was history for me to be here, but when I arrived [I was] told no other athlete had competed in Israel. For me, it was no problem and I hope to come back and compete next year”, he said.

In 2003 Kenyan athletics was temporarily thrown into disarray after it was announced that Kenyan officials had sanctioned the release of Shaheen and Albert Chepkurui to run for Qatar, a few weeks before the world championships.

Shaheen said he denounced his citizenship because he had been promised a US$1000 monthly stipend for life. He went on to win the 3000m steeplechase world title and earn an undisclosed handsome bonus from the government of Qatar.

But the International Association of Athletics Federations was not amused and introduced a three-year rule which is the period an athlete must remain in the cold if he changes citizenship and had represented the country of birth at an international competition.

Mucheru was one of the victims of this rule and served the full period since 2003.

Is the use of Kenyan defectors to Arab nations coming to an end? Last year a coach with the Qatar Athletics Federation announced that they wanted Kenyans purely for the Asian Games last December in Doha, Qatar, and they shall not be recruiting again soon.

(2007, Jan 8)