mohammad aliAmerican professional boxer Mohammad Ali, regarded as ‘the best ever’, died on Friday at the age of 74.
The former world heavyweight champion died at a hospital in the US city of Phoenix, Arizona, having been admitted on Thursday.
He had been suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease.
Very few Kenyans know this, but the legendary boxer once made a trip here, and no, it was not for a safari.
He visited the country as an emissary of the then US President Jimmy Carter, on a shuttle diplomacy to convince Kenya to boycott the Moscow Olympics. The US were not in the best terms with Russia.
Kenya has now granted us our wish. Kenya is now out of the Moscow Olympics. Kenya will not go and we consider this as big because Kenya is just about number one in the track and in the field; and what is the Olympics without Kenya, America and quite a few more countries who are voting 100% to get out,” Ali told journalists after meeting President Moi.
Here’s a clip from his visit.