Wanjiru and his carpenter father
OL KALAU, Kenya, May 27 – Just about two weeks after the death of Olympic Marathon Champion Samuel Wanjiru, another man has emerged claiming to be his biological father.
Fifty six year-old Lucas Kamotho Kameri claimed to have sired the marathoner after they met with his mother Hannah Wanjiru at her home in Matura village, Ol-Kalou division of Nyandarua North district.
The carpenter and a power saw operator said that he is the one who brought up the marathoner throughout his primary education and even facilitated his travel to Japan as a teenager and even produced family photos as proof of his claims.
The latest development emerged even as Wanjiru’s mother publicly denounced ex-military man Elijah Chebon as her son’s biological father. Mr Chebon, from Kabarnet, claimed that he met the athlete’s mother in Nanyuki in 1985.
Another man, Peter Kimani Kirihinya who hails from Kiambu County had also claimed brought up the athlete but admitted he was not the biological father.
Mr Kameri shocked Ol-Kalou Township on Thursday when he emerged with family photographs of him, Wanjiru and the mother during their happy moments. He said that he met her at a church function in 1985 after which love bonded them.
“We became good friends and it developed into something else. Our love culminated when we were blessed with a son out of the relationship. Samuel Kamau was named after his grandfather,” he said.
The carpenter said that they separated after their “son” joined full time athletics and started moving out of the country for international meetings.
“I did not have a job then and my parents could not afford to take care of him either. She pulled out of the relationship since they were well up,” he observed.
Displaying the young Wanjiru’s photos while training at Nyahururu stadium, Mr Kameri said that he used to take part of the earnings from his timber business to the mother until the son grew up.
“I had been providing for the family with the meagre earnings that I used to earn from the timber business until the baby went to primary school. He knew me as his father and their only breadwinner,” he said.
The ‘father’ said that they have lived as good friends with Hannah Wanjiru until recently when Wanjiru started earning from athletics.
When contacted over the matter, Ms Wanjiru said that she knew Mr Kameri but declined to comment on his paternity claims.
Mr Kameri now wants a DNA test to be done to prove that he is the real biological father. He further claimed that all the property that Wanjiru owned should be left under his care according to the Kikuyu custom.
He said that Wanjiru had promised to even buy for him a lorry to do business when he visited him in December.
Asked if he knew Wanjiru’s genuine wife, Kameri said that he only recognised Triza Njeri as he is the one who went to her home to report that they had been married.
Mr Kameri says he has since remarried and had been blessed with five other children.
Comments