Former World Indoor 600m record holder Michael Saruni has expressed the struggles he is enduring in the United States of America after the country was placed on lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.
The third-year Political Science student at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) wishes he was back home in Kenya, where anti-COVID-19 measures are not as tough as in America.
“There is nothing I can do here. The rules and laws are so hard to evade unlike back in Kenya. I wish I was at home,” he lamented.
"I pay for everything; school fees, rent, food and training programme but due to the virus, I don’t train or compete anymore. There is nothing I can do to sustain myself,” said Saruni.
“If found outside without good reason, the fine is 1,000 dollars or 14-days in self-quarantine. To be on the safe side, better stay indoors. Running is my only source of livelihood but it's now impossible.”
The former Kabimoi High School student in Baringo County said his scholarship has expired and thus left to fend for himself in a foreign land.
“Before the pandemic, I was on fire, at the top of my fitness but that remains past tense. Each time an athlete feels he or she is good, competing is the only option but now I don’t know what the future holds for me,” he said.
He said the Kenyan government is yet to offer them any help.
“At the personal level, I have not received anything from the Kenyan government, just like the rest of other Kenyan students here. I am praying that this pandemic comes to an end soon,” he hoped.
