Humnni Addaa Uummata Oromoo Ukkaamsu Qophaahuun Hubatame

Godina Iluu A/Booraa Ona Dambii, Beddellee fi Cooraatti Poolisoonni Kudhan Kudhan dhoksaan wayyaanonni Onoota 3n kana irratti qopheeffatanii kaa'amanii jiraachuun jaraa biragahameera.. Poolisoonni 30n kun wal quba qabu. Bakki jarri itti walgayanus magalaa Beddelleeti; yaroon hojii poolisoota kanaa halkan irraa Sa'aa 1:00 booda. Guyyaa hojii kana hin hojjetani; guyyaa Uffata Siviilii malee hin uffatani. Kaayyoon ykn akeekni Poolisoonni kun bu'ureffamaniif sab-boontota Oromoo ciccimoo ukkaamsuu akka ta'e barameera.

Quunnamtiin poolisoota kanaa Dhimma nageenyaa zoonii fi Tika zoonii kanaa fi akkasumas Tika Feederaalaa qofaan akka wal quunnamanu baramee jira. Qaamni jara beeku kana malee hin jiru. Kanaafuu, Sab-boontonni Oromoo fi Ummanni Oromoo naannoo kanaa ciminaa fi dammaqiinsa guddaan akka of eeggatanu keessa beektonni dhaamanii jiru. Sabummaan poolisoota 30n kanaa irra caalaan isaanii ilmaan Tigiraay afaan Oromoo akka gaariitti dubbatanuudha jedha maddeen keenya. Kaan ammoo ilmaan Habashaa Oromiyaa keessatti dhalatanii guddataniidha. Oromoon tokko illee keessa hin jiru.

Gara biraan walgayiin Minaasee W/Giyoorgisiin Adaamaatti deemaa jiru jeequmsa qofan akka ta'e baramee jira. Keessumaayyuu jedhu maddeen keenya: Gaaffiin poolisoota biraa kaa'aa jiru Minaasee hudhee qabee jira. Walgayiin kun hanga 10/11/99 ALHtti kan
itti fufu ta'uun isaallee hubatameera.

******

Oromoon Marti Dhimma Kana Irratti Duuluu Qaba!

Ibsa Ejjennoo Barattoota Oromoo Yuuniversiitii Aarbaa Minch

Akkuma amala ishee habashoonni har'as seenaa saba Oromoo xureessuu fi haaluu irraa duubatti hin jenne. Haaluma kanaan torbee darbe habashoonni sadii isaanis Tasfamikaa'el-barsiisaa seenaa; Oromoon muka irraa dhufe yoo jedhu, Sintaayyoo Kidaanee-barsiisaa seenaa immoo Oromoon keeniyaa irraa Somaaleen arii'ame biyya Itoophiyaa seene jechuudhaan diinummaa fi jibbinsa saba Oromoof qaban mul'isaniiru. Akkasumas barsiisaa Ingiliffaa kan ta'e Wubaayyee Asaayyee kan jedhamus Dhimma kun dhugaa dha "debate" godhaa jechuun kutaa keessatti odeessee jira.

Dhimma kana ilaalchisnee nuti barattoonni Yuuniversiitii kanaa erga irratti marii'annee booda tarkaanfii mataa keenyaa fudhannee turre. Haata'u malee sun qofti gahaadha jennee hin amannu. Kanaaf ibsa ejjennoo armaan gadii baafannee jirra

1.Kitaaba seenaa uummata Oromoo xureessu mana kitaabaa yuuniversiitichaa keessatti argamu hatattamaan akka dhabamsiifamu ni gaafanna.

2.Barreessaan kitaabichaa Baahiruu Zawdee jedhamu amma yuuniversiitii Finfinnee barsiisaa jiru seeraan akka gaafatamu ni gaafanna.

3.Kitaaboleen seenaa kutaa 7ffaa fi 8ffaa dhimma seenaa Oromoo gurraachessu kana qabatanii jiran, hatattamaan akka jijjiiraman ni gaafanna.

4.Namoonni kun sadan to'annoo seeraa jala oolanii jiran, hatattamaan murtoo itti kennamee uummataaf akka ifa ta'u ni gaafanna.

5.Kitaaboleen seenaa fi kanneen biroo seenaa uummata Oromoo xureessan bakkeewwan adda addaatti argaman akka dhabamsiifaman ni gaafanna.

6.Waluumaagalatti barattoonni Oromoo Yuuniversiitii biroo fi uummanni Oromoo marti tarkaanfii barbaachisu mara akka fudhattan waamicha keenya dabarsina.

Injifannoo Uummata Oromoof!!

Barattoota Oromoo Yuuniversiitii Aarbaa Minch

Ethiopian runners withdraw from Golden Gala

ROME: Nearly all of Ethiopia's long-distance runners were pulled out of Friday's Golden Gala meet by their national federation to compete in the All Africa Games.

"It's a very unpleasant situation. This issue needs to be addressed," meet director Luigi D'Onofrio said Thursday. "The dates of these events should be looked at more carefully in the future."

The meet was counting on another world record attempt by Meseret Defar in the 5,000 meters. She set the mark of 14 minutes, 16.63 seconds at the opening Golden League meet in Oslo, Norway, on June 15.

Tariku Bekele was scheduled to lead the men's 5,000.

D'Onofrio said that Tariku's older brother Kenenisa Bekele was not called up by the Ethiopian federation and therefore will compete in Sheffield, England, on Sunday.

The All Africa Games started Wednesday in Algeria and run until July 23.

Long jumper Irving Saladino has another conflict. He is Panama's flag bearer for the opening ceremony Friday at the Pan American Games.

International Herald Tribune

A member of Ethiopia’s parliament from the Ogaden region defected

12 July 2007

A member of Ethiopia’s parliament from the Ogaden region has defected and is currently seeking political asylum in Germany.

Ato Jemal Derie Kalif told Ethiopian Review that he has been a member of the Woyanne-controlled parliament representing the Warder Zone, Geladen Constituency of the Somali region (also known as the Ogaden).

Ato Jemal was in Wiesbaden, Germany, to participate in an international conference organized by the European Union. He was a member of the 5-member delegation led by the speaker of the house that represented the Woyanne regime.

Ato Jemal said that the on going atrocities of the Woyanne regime against Ethiopians in the Ogaden regime and through out the country led to his decision to defect in protest.

Ethiopian Review

Brother charged in sister's murder

WCCO) Minneapolis
The victim's brother Adel Ahamed Mohamed, 21, admitted to police that he murdered Rahina Mohamed.

The brother of a murdered Crystal, Minn. woman has been charged with second-degree murder in her death.

Rahina Mohamed, 45, was found by her husband when he returned home from work just before 1 a.m.
Saturday. She was dead as a result of multiple stab wounds.

According to the criminal complaint, Adel Ahamed Mohamed, 21, was identified by the victim's husband as a potential suspect. He was later located at a gas station acting erratically.

While undergoing questioning, the suspect admitted to stabbing his sister. He said he was angry with her because she "called him names and she did not like him," according to the complaint.

With the blood on his hands noted by officers, the suspect also led authorities to the location where he had hidden the murder weapon.

Adel Mohamed is being held on $2 million bail.

Rahina Mohamed was described as a prominent member of Minnesota's Oromo community, who came to America from Africa in 1982 at age 18.

She and her husband were among the first refugees from Oromia, a region of Ethiopia, to settle in Minnesota, where the largest contingent of Oromo people in the nation now live.

The homicide was the first in Crystal since 1996, according to authorities.

WCC.COM

Eritrea arrests head of British Council

Xan Rice, east Africa correspondent
Wednesday July 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Eritrea has arrested the acting head of the British Council in the capital, Asmara, and refused a British diplomat permission to leave the country following a row over a satellite internet link.

The British Council employee, an Eritrean national, has been in jail for a week, and embassy staff are extremely concerned for his wellbeing. Eritrea, seen by many as Africa's most repressive state, regularly imprisons its citizens for lengthy periods in harsh conditions and without access to legal representation.

The diplomat is normally resident in Ethiopia, Eritrea's neighbour and foe. He has been prevented from flying home on at least one occasion since the incident. The British Council and Foreign Office have confirmed the arrest and travel restriction but declined to name the men involved.

Eritrea's action stems from plans by the British Council to install a satellite internet link as part of a huge programme to connect its offices worldwide. The Eritrean authorities rarely allow organisations - local or foreign - to use secure satellite connections, insisting that they use local service providers connected to the government.

Ten days ago a British Council employee involved in the proposed internet upgrade was arrested and then released, only for the acting head of the council to be detained in his place. The diplomat was also working on the project.

"We are concerned that a member of our staff is being held by the Eritrean authorities," said a British Council spokesman in London. "We have not been informed of the reason for their arrest but believe it is the result of a simple misunderstanding."

Ali Abdu, Eritrea's information minister, could not be reached for comment.

Eritrea, which accuses rich nations of siding with Ethiopia in a dispute over the countries' mutual border, has been making life increasingly difficult for western diplomats over the past year. All embassy staff now need to apply for permission 10 days in advance if they wish to travel outside the capital.

The US, a strong ally of Ethiopia, has come in for particular scrutiny. Its embassy in Asmara suspended public services in February after government officials insisted on inspecting its diplomatic pouches.

Guardian Unlimited

News in pictures: Profiles Of The Terrorists

Updated 13:13, Tuesday July 10, 2007

Four men - all Muslims of African origin - have been found guilty of plotting to bomb London's transport system.

Ramzi Mohammed, 25, attempted to detonate a bomb on the Northern Line near Oval station.

He is a Somali national who came to Britain in the 1990s.

The two will be remembered by the public as the men captured in their underpants by armed police outside a Notting Hill flat.

He attended sermons at Finsbury Park Mosque by radical cleric Abu Hamza, and lived in a flat North Kensington.

CCTV footage from the train showed him turning his rucksack towards a woman with a child in a pushchair as he tried to detonate it.

He was seen fleeing the scene wearing a New York top, which prosecutors said was to evoke memories of September 11.

He left a suicide note, telling his family to "rejoice" at his actions.

Muktah Said Ibrahim, the plot's ringleader and bombmaker, was bo

rn in Eritrea and came to Britain in the 1990s to escape the war with Ethiopia.

He tried to set off a bomb on a bus near Bank station, although he claimed he had changed his mind on the day and it had gone off by mistake.

He became a practising Muslim in 2003 and regularly distributed Islamic literature in London. He had terrorism training in Sudan in 2003. He met two of the 7/7 bombers in Pakistan.

Yassin Hassan Omar, 26, attempted to detonate a bomb near Warren Street station.

He arrived in Britain from his native Somalia in 1992 aged 11 and was granted exceptional leave to remain in Britain in May 2000.

He lived in a flat with Muktar Ibrahim in New Southgate, north London, where he received housing benefit.

He was spotted fleeing London in a woman's burqa. When found by armed police, he was standing in a bath with a rucksack on his back.

Police thought the pack was a bomb and nearly shot him. He was also a follower of Abu Hamza after becoming interested in religion at about 18, when he started wearing traditional Muslim attire.

He got married at a hastily arranged ceremony just four days before the bombings.

Hussain Osman, 28, tried to detonate a bomb on a train at Shepherd's Bush.

He said he was born in Ethiopia and his real name was Handi Issac.

He lived in Italy during the early 1990s, and moved to Britain in 1996. He was living at a flat in Stockwell, south London, at the time of the attacks.

After his bomb failed to work, Osman jumped from the train, walked down the track and ran through an elderly couple's house.

He fled the country on a Eurostar train using someone else's passport and was finally arrested in Italy.

Sky News

Ethiopia death call "surprises" US (BBC News)

The United States has said it is "surprised" at the call by an Ethiopian prosecutor for the death penalty for 38 opposition leaders.

The 38 were found guilty of links to violent election protests in 2005.

A US spokesman urged the Ethiopian government and the High Court to "promote much-needed reconciliation" in final sentencing.

The US is a close ally of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and helped his forces oust Islamists in Somalia.

Ethiopia's government has always stressed that the courts are independent and denies that the trial is political.

Relatives of the 38 Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders say they have signed a document which might pave the way for them to be freed.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says this could be some form of apology or plea for mercy.

"We call on the Ethiopian government and High Court to take action in making a final sentencing determination, which is consistent with the greater objectives of bolstering the rule of law and promoting much-needed reconciliation," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Armed rebellion

Among the 38 are the entire CUD leadership, several of the capital's elected MPs and city councillors, including Berhanu Negga, mayor-elect of Addis Ababa.

Prosecutor Abraham Tetemke said they had tried to bring down the government when he called for the death penalty on Monday.

Some 193 people were killed in protests at alleged vote-rigging.

Most of the dead were protesters, killed by security forces.

The judge had been due to pass sentence on Monday but he adjourned the hearing for a week to allow those convicted the chance to respond to the prosecutor's statement.

They have so far refused to recognise the court or enter any defence - the reason why the judges said they were forced to find them guilty as charged last month.

Their offences included outrage against the constitution and, in the case of party leader, Hailu Shawel, and four others, inciting, organising and leading armed rebellion.

Hundreds of thousands took part in demonstrations complaining of fraud and rigging in the elections won by Prime Minister Meles' party.

An independent inquiry carried out by an Ethiopian judge concluded that the police had used excessive force.

He went on to accuse them of carrying out a massacre. The judge later fled Ethiopia, saying he had been put under pressure to change his findings and had received death threats.

Tarnished

The government points out that it introduced multiparty elections to Ethiopia after years of military rule.

In the elections, the opposition made huge gains but says it was cheated out of victory.

Three months ago, a judge threw out controversial charges of attempted genocide and treason against another 111 people arrested after the election protests.

The violence and the charges of election fraud have tarnished Mr Meles' image as a favourite of Western donors and one of a new wave of reforming African leaders.

Some donors have reduced aid over the case.

Fallout from war on terror hits Ethiopia

U.S. ally battles its own insurgents

By Paul Salopek
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published July 9, 2007

JIJIGA, Ethiopia -- The gray-faced young man lying in bed number 15 of the run-down local hospital wasn't much of a talker. In truth, few people are these days in Jijiga, a desert town whose tense streets are patrolled by swarms of Ethiopian police.

But Nur Omar Ali, 25, whose neck was patched with dingy bandages, had a particularly good reason for being silent. His throat had been cut. He'd been attacked and left for dead nine days earlier at his remote village. When he was asked to identify his assailants, the camel herder's eyes shined with hate.

Christians," rasped Nur, clamping a hand to his stitched-up neck. "Ethiopian soldiers."

Then, scowling, he rolled over and turned his back on his hospital visitors. After all, one was a reporter from the United States, a nation closely allied with the Ethiopian government that is conducting a fierce anti-insurgency campaign in the Ogaden Desert -- a civil war in Ethiopia's impoverished Muslim east that appears to be worsening thanks, at least in part, to the global confrontation between the U.S. and Islamic radicalism.

Human-rights groups and media reports accuse Ethiopia -- a key partner in Washington's battle against terrorism in the volatile Horn of Africa -- of burning villages, pushing nomads off their lands and choking off food supplies in a harsh new campaign of collective punishment against a restive ethnic Somali population in the Ogaden, a vast wilderness of rocks and thorns bordering chaotic Somalia.

Ethiopia angrily denies the charges, which it blames on propaganda spread by the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front.

"We don't see any basic violations of human rights," said Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "Abusing the people doesn't make sense. You abuse people and they look to the subversives. It's counterproductive."

Yet in Jijiga, the only town in the embattled region still open to journalists, residents told of the secret arrests of prominent ethnic Somali businessmen with purported links to the rebels -- hotel owners, construction contractors and traders in qat, the intoxicating plant chewed by millions in the region.

One man in that raw frontier outpost described walking eight days through the bush to escape a war-ruined zone called Fik, where he claimed he saw torched and depopulated villages. And a displaced camel herder told how his village close to the Somalia border had been emptied by the Ethiopian army and its residents trucked to garrison towns such as Shilabo, a counterinsurgency tactic once used by the U.S. in Vietnam, and meant to deprive the rebels of their civilian support base.

"They loaded people into trucks and just abandoned them there," said Farah, 60, who like most people in Jijiga refused to give his full name for fear of police reprisal. "They treated us like animals."

'People are actually starving'

Mostly, though, the whispered talk was about hunger.

The Ethiopian army has locked down immense swaths of the Ogaden, blocking all roads and smuggling trails to commercial traffic, and thus triggering desperate food shortages in a desert already prone to famines. A teacher from the central Ogaden town of Kebredehar said most shops in that area had closed for lack of stocks. The prices of remaining foodstuffs such as rice, he said, had rocketed 400 percent -- far out of reach of ordinary Ogadenis.

"We're forbidden to talk about it, but there is a big problem," said a worker with the Ethiopian Red Cross. "It's not just hunger anymore. People are actually starving."

Humanitarian groups met Friday with the Ethiopian military to appeal for reopening the roads, several aid workers in Jijiga said. The army agreed -- hinting that the current crackdown on the troubled region may be winding down, possibly due to the start of the rainy season.

Nobody, however, expects the lull in fighting to last. Indeed, most people expect the killing to accelerate.

Ogaden has been bloodstained by more than a century of Ethiopian conquest, revolts against European colonial rule, Cold War proxy battles and abortive independence movements. The current cycle of violence began early this year, soon after Ethiopia decided to invade neighboring Somalia to topple an emerging Islamist regime -- with the blessings of the U.S.

As in Afghanistan and Iraq, that blow against a perceived terrorist threat yielded unexpected fallout.

In the case of Christian-dominated Ethiopia, it helped reignite the quiescent rebel movement in the Muslim hinterland of the Ogaden, experts say.

Emboldened by Ogadeni sympathy for their co-religionists across the Somalia border, and taking advantage of the Ethiopian army's preoccupation with taming Mogadishu, the ONLF rebels began successfully attacking towns.

The insurgents have long accused the "colonial" Ethiopian military of mass rapes and summary executions in the isolated villages of the Ogaden. But the rebels have come under some scrutiny too. Recent grenade attacks blamed on ONLF sympathizers killed a handful of civilians in Jijiga. And a devastating rebel assault on a Chinese-run gas and oil exploration project in the Ogaden in April left 74 dead, many of them unarmed workers.

'I played dead for two hours'

"They came and ordered us out of our tents, then lined us up and shot us," said Eskedar Demissw, 27, a driver at the oil camp and the only survivor from his team of 12 laborers. "It took five minutes. I was shot three times in the back. I played dead for two hours."

The ONLF claims that the oil workers were gunned down by confused Ethiopian army guards.

"What the Ethiopian regime is doing in the Ogaden is a catastrophe," said Qamaan Hersi, a rebel spokesman. "As far as the U.S. is concerned, what better way is there to create [Islamic] extremism than to oppress people the way the Ethiopians are?"

In fact, Ethiopia's crackdown in the Ogaden has put the U.S. in an awkward position. Washington is still resisting Ethiopia's request to list the ONLF as a terrorist group. And last week, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa convened a large meeting of humanitarian organizations to discuss ways of getting aid into the war zone.

American civil affairs soldiers once built schools and drilled water wells around Jijiga. In the Ogaden, all those hearts-and-minds programs are on hold.

"I'm not sure the Americans would be very welcome anymore," said Kassahun Gebregioris, an independent human-rights worker in Jijiga. "The Ogadeni clans associate them too much with the Ethiopians. And they don't forget."

----------

psalopek@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Relative arrested in stabbing death of Crystal woman

TV Report http://wcco.com/video/?id=28812
The person of interest is now the sole suspect in a Crystal woman's stabbing.

By Chao Xiong, Star Tribune

Last update: July 08, 2007 – 12:04 PM

A relative of the Crystal woman slain in her home Saturday is in jail as the sole suspect in her death, Crystal police said today.

Police initially characterized him as a person of interest but are now saying he acted alone in killing Rahina Mohamed, 45, a well-known leader in the Oromo community.

The 21-year-old man brought a "large kitchen knife" to Mohamed's house, said Capt. Dave Oyaas. The suspect discarded the weapon near Medicine Lake Road and Louisiana Avenue in New Hope, police said.

Mohamed's husband found her dead of stab wounds at 12:44 a.m. in their home in the 6600 block of 37th Avenue N.

The suspect was detained by Golden Valley police about 5:20 p.m. that day at a gas station after someone called to say he was acting irrationally.

Mohamed grew up in Ethiopia and came to the United States in 1982 with her husband. They were among the first from Oromia, a region in Ethiopia, to settle in Minnesota. She earned a reputation for helping local Oromo immigrants, who turned out by the hundreds at her sister's home Saturday. Mohamed worked as a cashier in a downtown Minneapolis parking ramp.

It was the first homicide in Crystal in more than a decade.

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391 • cxiong@startribune.com

Star Tribune

Oromo woman found stabbed to death in Crystal home

The Associated Press

8 July 2007

Rahina Mohamed, 45, was found dead by her husband, Abdisalam Abdullahi, when he returned home from his second-shift job at an Edina hospital shortly before 1 a.m., said Crystal Police Capt. Dave Oyaas.

The young man was picked up about 5:20 p.m. Oyaas didn't identify the man as a suspect but said he could become a suspect.

Police said there was no evidence of forced entry to the home and no murder weapon was found.

Mohamed came to America from Africa in 1982 at age 18 with her 20-year-old husband, whom she had married in a refugee camp. They were among the first Oromo people to settle in Minnesota, where the largest contingent of Oromo people in the nation now live.

Hundreds of Oromo immigrants went to the home of the victim's sister in Brooklyn Park to mourn. They said Mohamed had helped many immigrants from Oromia, a region of Ethiopia, adjust to life in America.

Abdullahi said he spoke to his wife from work about 7 p.m. Friday and again about an hour later, when she wished him good night. He said police were verifying the times on his cell phone, which they had taken. Mohamed's mother spoke to her about 11 p.m., relatives said, and all was well.

Abdullahi said when he arrived home from work, he saw lights on in the kitchen and garage that she usually turned off late, and knew something was wrong. Inside, he saw that a door from the house into the garage was open. He said he found his wife dead in the living room.

"I lost my heart," Abdullahi said, sobbing as relatives tried to comfort him Saturday afternoon. "She's my heart."

Mohamed had no known enemies and was honest, peaceful and religious, praying five times a day in devotion to her Islamic faith, her husband and many others said. They said she never hesitated to help other immigrants by providing money, clothes and advice. And she worked to preserve the cultural traditions of Oromia, where she continued to send money to help people.

"It is a very, very huge shock in our community -- this is horrible for us," said Mahdi Ahmed, a leader of Oromo immigrants in Minnesota.

___

Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com

Back to Bekele's roots in sleepy Bekoji

Back to Bekele's roots in sleepy Bekoji
Story by ELIAS MAKORI
Publication Date: 2007/07/07

After a tiring 280-kilometre drive south east of Addis Ababa, our party arrives in the famous town of Bekoji.
Famous because this sleepy town in the Arsi Province of the Oromiya region is home to most of Ethiopia’s famous world middle distance running greats.
Derartu Tulu and Fatuma Roba, Olympic medallists in the 10,000 metres respectively, multiple world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, double world champion Tirunesh Dibaba all hail from this province.
It is also the birth place of five times double world cross country champion Kenenisa Bekele.
Kenenisa’s sports teacher
We arrive at the Bekoji Elementary School, the alma mater of Kenenisa, Tirunesh and other great names and, after visiting several classes in session, we are introduced to Sentayehu Eshetu, Kenenisa’s first sports teacher.
Immediately, we delve into Kenenisa’s history. “What distinguished Kenenisa from the rest of the pupils,” I launched.
Sentayehu’s response: “He had the speed and completed his training schedules well ahead of the rest.
“We traditionally used to run up and down the hills and also do a lot of cross country running to gather stamina and Kenenisa used to excel in all these regimes.”
One date Ethiopians would like to forget in a hurry is March 24, 2007. It was the day Kenenisa failed in his bid for a sixth straight title in the long course at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa.
Most painful defeat
Kenenisa dropped out with just a few metres to go, handing victory to traditional rivals Eritrea whose Zersanay Tadesse gleefully cruised to the finish line to hand Ethiopia their most painful defeat in distance running.
“I did not know Mombasa was that hot,” Sentayehu braves his story. “I suffered a headache for a long time after that result...I was sick.”
But the coach still maintains that it will be difficult for Ethiopia and the world to see an athlete as great as Kenenisa.
“I don’t believe it will be easy to have another Kenenisa...even in Mombasa, Zersanay was always worried about being caught by Kenenisa during the race and if not for Kenenisa’s misfortune, Zersanay could not have come close to him.”
Sentayehu also talked about Tirunesh’s formative days as an athlete.
“Tirunesh was a member of our project and she trained three to four times each week also under distance running coach Yilma Berta who was at the time our technical director,” the coach explained at the school that currently has about 3,000 pupils from first to eighth grade paying, on average, a paltry 50 Ethiopian Birr (about Sh 700) per year as school fees.
After a short while at the school, we head about two kilometres out of town and are led to a busy construction site.
A well-furnished 20-room hotel is nearing completion and we learn that it is one of Kenenisa Bekele’s numerous real estate investments strewn all over the republic.
Next to the hotel is a freshly completed house that we learn has just been completed by the star athlete and is home to his parents, 82-year-old farmer Bekele Bayicha and housewife mother Kuli.
“You people always take my pictures but I never get the copies,” the humorous Bekele shoots at me in the local Oromiya dialect as I focus my camera on his big frame.
The couple have six children - four boys and two girls.
Immediately noticeable on one of the walls are numerous images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
The striking thing is that in the midst of all these pictures is one of Kenenisa Bekele in action at the 2003 World Championships in Paris leading Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya’s John Korir, among others.
The set-up summed up the high esteem in which the family held their sporting hero. The living room has a seven-seater sofa set, dining table and a television set with pictures of Kenenisa and his younger brother Tariku gracing the other walls.
After the pleasantries I ask a question I’m sure many journalists have asked the old couple: Just what does Kenenisa Bekele mean to Ethiopia?
“We feel happy,” the old man replies through the interpreter, “he has made us famous, he has made Bekoji famous and he has made Ethiopia famous...if not for him, you wouldn’t have been here, for instance.” Fair point!
What about the Mombasa fiasco? “We were very disappointed,” the old man affords.
“We wondered why such a competition should be held under such hot conditions. “We even think it was a deliberate move to make sure that Kenenisa did not win! But, anyway, it was God’s will. It is God who knows everything.”
Initially, Kenenisa’s parents wanted him to complete his education and were not for his idea to take athletics seriously.
“I objected to his running but he said was standing in his way and insisted he wanted to go to Addis Ababa. Initially I made fun of it but when he went abroad and started winning races, I was embarrassed that I had tried to stop him in the first place.”
The old couple don’t disagree when it comes to competition between their two superstar sons Kenenisa and Tariku.
“Kenenisa is stronger,” their father argues. “Even after three years, Kenenisa will be much bigger and better.
“When they race against each other, I would always like to see Tariku finish just behind Kenenisa. At the moment, I don’t want Tariku to beat Kenenisa!”
Why?, I ask. “Just as there exists respect between the young and the old, we will always support the old,” the old man replies.
“The time will come one day for Tariku to take over.
“In the same way that Kenenisa was not supposed to beat Haile Gebrselassie, we do not want Tariku to beat Kenenisa,” argues Bekele who in 2005 travelled to Hengelo, the Netherlands, together with his wife to watch Kenenisa’s unsuccessful attempt at a 10,000 metres world record.
On the road back to Addis, I notice a matatu with a lion’s picture and an inscription reading: “Kenenisa Bekele is a Lion!.”
Indeed, the Ethiopian running sensation has a brave heart. It is no wonder that he was the subject of a hit song ‘Ambesa’ (meaning Lion in Amharic).
At just 22, his fiancé with whom they were planning to hold a wedding in April 2005, Alem Techale, a world junior champion in the 1,500m, died in his hands as the couple were training in the Ararat forest in the outskirts of Addis.
“I found her unable to run and struggling to stand, holding onto a tree,” Kenenisa said in an interview shortly after the devastating incident.
“I asked her what was wrong and she was in pain and asked me to pray for her.” Kenenisa rushed to his car but efforts to resuscitate him on the way to hospital failed and Alem, at just 18 years of age, died after what was believed to be heart failure.
Kenenisa was so devastated that he wanted to call off his bid for a fourth straight double at the world cross country championships in St Etienne/St Galmier, France.
Many thought this was the end of his fledgling career in athletics.
Immortal in athletics
The fact that he eventually competed and won the short and long course races exalted him to the levels of an immortal in athletics.
Even the recent debacle in Mombasa will not blemish Kenenisa’s great athletics career and he is still the hot favourite to win the long course race at next year’s 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships next year.
After setting a world junior record for the 3,000m in 2001, Bekele won his first world cross country title in 2002 Dublin, where he became the first man to win the long and short races at the same championships.
Bekele retained both titles in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and was on course to being the first man to winning six straight titles this year in Mombasa when he was floored by Zersanay Tadesse.
At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, Bekele won the 10,000m and finished third in the 5,000m.
In the run-up to the Athens Olympics, over a 10-day period, Bekele shattered Haile Gebrselassie’s world records in the 10,000m and the 5,000m.
In Athens, Kenenisa won the gold in an Olympic record time before winning silver in the 1,500m a few days later.
Like Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa is managed by Dutchman Jos Hermens and trains with the Ethiopian national team in Addis Ababa. “During the track season, we also train in Europe because that’s where most competitions are,” Kenenisa adds
Recently, Kenenisa confessed to the Sunday Nation that he has not recovered yet from his Mombasa loss and was in bad shape.
However, in his only race of the new season so far, he ripped apart the opposition to win the 3,000m race in Hengelo a month ago, perhaps a wake-up call to his opponents telling them that he’s still around.
Businesswise, just like Gebrselassie, Kenenisa is in real estate business with housing and hotel interests managed by his company, Kenenisa Bekele Trading.
He owns buildings in Addis Ababa, Assela and Bekoji. However, he prefers to concentrate on athletics for the moment.
“I have enough people to run my businesses so that I concentrate on athletics. Even most of the time my associates don’t want to see me in the office. They want me to train.”

Nation Media