The 2012 Boston Marathon Champion and former Cherangany Member of Parliament, Wesley Korir, has announced a political comeback after five years of being on the sidelines.
Korir took to his Twitter account on November 19, 2021, declaring that he would be vying as Cherangany MP on a United Democratic Party (UDA) ticket, a position he had previously held from 2013 to 2017.
“It is now official:) So help me God,” read Korir’s tweet.
The marathoner was elected MP for Cherangany constituency, Trans-nzoia County, as an independent candidate, with his top priority being the provision of clean water to villages.
Korir decided to switch to a political party towards the 2017 general elections, joining Jubilee Party, where he lost the party primaries to the incumbent Joshua Kutuny.
Kutuny had just resigned as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s political advisor in 2017, to vie for the seat which he had occupied from 2007 to 2013.
During his tenure as a legislator, Korir was still involved in training as a senior athlete and marathoner, a thing he stated was too demanding but he managed.
“Finding body-guards who could stay with me in training carrying their work equipment was the hardest thing,” stated Korir in a 2019 interview.
He took a break from politics after shelving his legislative ambitions in 2017, where he worked as a mentor and coach for other upcoming athletes.
In a 2020 Facebook live interview, Korir recounted his memorable moments before he graduated as an elite runner. He talked about how he was denied to run as an elite runner in the 2008 Chicago Marathon, where he joined five minutes later and finished fourth.
This milestone became an inspiration behind his industrious career that saw him win the coveted 2012 Boston Marathon.
Korir studied at the State Murray University in Kentucky, before transferring to the University of Louisville after his former college dropped its track races program.
The marathoner is married to a fellow athlete, Tarah McKay, a Canadian, who he met on campus.
