Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has come to the rescue of another local boxing champion less than a week after he intervened and airlifted former female boxing star Congestina Achieng’ to Nairobi for treatment and subsequent rehabilitation.
Suleiman Bilal was picked at his ragged Muthurwa home in Nairobi after officials from the Sonko Rescue Team visited him.
He was driven off the home and admitted to Nairobi West Hospital for treatment.
Bilal represented Kenya at the Olympics in 2000 in Sydney Australia, 2004 in Athens Greece and in Beijing China in 2008.
After the 2008 Olympics games, he deserted duty and was subsequently dismissed from Kenya Police service.
He has since then been living in Muthurwa in abject poverty and fighting alcoholism.
His condition worsened when he was knocked by an overspending vehicle during an early morning run in the city months before leaving police service.
“Doctors put a metal in one of my legs for support. I also had a nasty head injury which occasioned memory loss,” he says.
“Things worsened when I separated with my wife and kids and I was dismissed from Kenya Police Service. Alcohol became my only companion since I was idle.”
Bilal now becomes the second boxing champion to be rescued by Sonko after Congestina. Both have been promised jobs at the Nairobi County government after rehabilitation.