SERIKALI YA UGANDA YAWAJENGEA NYUMBA WAZAZI WA MWANARIADHA WA KIMATAIFA STEPHEN KIPROTICH

Kiproitch’s parents Enserena Cheptum, James Kiptoi Kiboi and elder brother Michael Ayeko celebrate his win.

2012 Olympic Gold Medalist and now the #IAAF World Chapion; Stephen Kiprotich in pictures during the #IAAF World championships men's marathon race in Moscow today.

By James Bakama
IF anybody had ever delivered to the parents of Uganda golden boy Stephen Kiprotich a message at the start of last year to the effect that they would own a lavish house in not-so far-a future, they would have easily dismissed it as mockery.
Like the biblical elderly Sarah, the wife to Abraham, who laughed it off when her husband delivered to her the divine message about the expected birth of Isaac at her advanced age, Kiprotich’s parents would undoubtedly have passed off the messenger as a lunatic or about to be.
Yet a new expansive house is what the elderly couple James Kiptoi Kiboi and Enserena Cheptum Kokop, is expecting to move into any time soon.
Since 1993, the couple has stayed in a rickety mud and wattle house with two cramped rooms.
Fate, however, seemed not to have given up on the couple just yet!
When Kiprotich struck gold in the London Olympics last August, floodgates of opportunities opened up.
The need for a better house slipped on top of the couple’s shopping list, for the family had yielded a national hero.

Kiprotich's father James Kiptoi Kiboi sits outside the house the family has lived in since 1993.

At the meeting with President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta at State House after the heroic return of Kiprotich and fellow Uganda athletes from London, the couple repeated their plea to the President for a better house from Government.
On May 6 this year, a team from State House visited the family to ascertain the exact spot where the house was to be erected.
Michael Ayeko, a brother to Kiprotich explains that the team, mainly comprising of engineers, took a walk around the family land to ascertain where to erect the house.
“We had suggested that the house be built just close to the old one. But they advised us that because the new house needs to be overlooking the road, our suggested spot was inappropriate spot and they chose another. Thereafter, they cleared the spot of the bananas and started the construction until July 16 when it was completed,” Ayeko explains.
It’s a spacious house
The spacious three-bedroom house, complete with a boys quarter, external toilet and a 5000 litre plastic water tank is decked on a low slope overlooking Mt. Elgon national forest in Cheptilyal village, Tegeres sub county, Kapchorwa district.
The veranda of the house is tiled with black flooring tiles while the inside has a mat of cream tiles. The house has been wired and sockets and switches fixed.
“I never in all my life had dreamt of staying in such a house. Before our current old house was built in 1993, we had been staying in grass thatched house,” Cheptum says.
It is a tourist site
In Tegeres, the house is the biggest and classiest. In fact, as Levy Kiptoyek, a cousin to Kiprotich explains, the house attracts wild stares from passers-by daily.

Kiproitch’s mother Cheptum cleaning around the new house that Government has built for the family in Tegeres.

“Whenever people pass along that road, they stop and marvel at the house. Some who are new to the area even go on to ask what wealthy person in Government had built the house,” Kiptoyek says.

The house is still under lock-and-key though and the couple still occupies the old rickety house awaiting the handover of the new house.
“We are excited about the day we will get into the house. Because it’s locked and we don’t have a spare key, we can only clean the veranda. When we had a chat with the President, he told us that the house would be built and installed with solar energy and a new television set. I believe that’s the only thing remaining before we check in,” Cheptum says.
Victor Byaruhanga, the engineer who oversaw the project explains that the house was built by the State House engineering department.
Whereas Byaruhanga is not certain of the day the house will be officially handed over to the family, he explained that all the construction works had been completed.
“They (Kiprotich’s parents) asked for a house and we built it. The issue of installing solar and a television set is an emerging matter that was not detailed in the initial request. The house will be handed over to the family by the President himself or his representative,” Byaruhanga said. Source: New Vision- Uganda