By Ben Ochieng
NAIROBI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- During the 2013 Kenyan general elections, three sportsmen were elected to the county's national assembly.
Former Boston Marathon champion Wesley Korir, former national volleyball team captain Dan Wanyama, and another former Boston Marathon winner Elijah Lagat joined the legislature.
Korir won the seat of Cheranganyi constituency in Western Kenya while vying as an independent candidate, whereas Wanyama triumphed on a party ticket.
Lagat successfully defended his Chesumei seat to earn a second term as Member of Parliament.
Their victories showed that sports has positive implications on politics, and in the 2017 elections, more of them threw their hats in the ring to vie for the coveted positions.
Beijing 800m Olympic champion, Wilson Bungei vied for the Emgwen seat and did not make it beyond the primaries, whereas former world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang also floundered at the party nominations stage.
"The electorate was looking for additional qualities other than their athletic prowess. They failed to complement their conquests in sports arena with other qualities like charisma and their development agenda," said a sports scientist in anonymity.
In 1997, Ibrahim Hussein, the first Kenya to win the Boston Marathon tried and failed to capture the Emgwen seat during the general elections.
This was not the first time people in the sports arena in Kenya have used sports as a springboard to national politics.
Three heads of Kenya's football administration have in the past used football, the country's most favorite game to leapfrog into elective politics.
Former politician Kenneth Matiba was the first football manager to join politics after he used his privileged position to popularize himself through the popular pastime and even rose to become a powerful minister.
He was closely followed in the heels by Clement Gachanja and Joab Omino who both became MPs with the latter rising to become the deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
At the international scene, Nawal al-Moutawakel, who became the first Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she won the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games once served as sports minister in her native Morocco.
She is currently serving as International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President and is a leading contender for IOC presidency.
Cuba's Alberto Juantorena, who became the first athlete to win Olympic 400m and 800m titles, when he achieved the feat in 1976 also once, served a minister for sports in his country after retirement from track.
Former Pakistani international cricket player, Imran Khan, joined politics after retiring from two decades of active playing and served as a member of the national assembly for five years.
