Eliud Kipchoge in Vienna, Austria. [Reuters]
Today was a big day for Kenya, going by what the country has been through.
Even though for a few minutes, just under two hours, we were taken away from the latest national news, which was the retrieval of a woman and her child from a car wreckage on the ocean floor.
Eliud Kipchoge made history.
When he set out to break the record, many thought he wouldn't do it.
Photos and comments were circulated on social media, about how what he wanted to do was impossible.
He proved that indeed no human is limited.
That phrase will perhaps be linked to Kipchoge for a long time.
He reminds Kenyans of the ceiling Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong'o broke when she won an Oscar in 2018.
She said 'all dreams are valid', a statement whose conviction rings close to Kipchoge's .
Perhaps Kenyans do not have the best infrastructure, or the best education, or systems of governance.
But Kenya has a people that believes in going beyond expectation.
Kipchoge and Nyong'o are but a sample of what Kenyans can produce.
With only two months left before the year ends, there may be a long list of things the country did not get right.
There have been scandals that have left Kenyans more discouraged in the direction the country is taking, those which have hit us where it hurts the most.
Families have been evicted from places they called home, children have been buried alive in a place they thought they were safe, billions of shillings lost in corruption scandals, but it's not all gloom.
We may not get everything right, but on the kind of people we are, the very fabric that is our nation, is our humanity. Our dreams.
They say if you have not dreamed you have not lived.
Kipchoge dreamed that he could make history.
He worked tirelessly towards it, no doubt.
Nyong'o and Kipchoge have set the pace for Kenyans hoping for a better tomorrow.
It may not take us under two hours to fix it, only Kipchoge can do that.
But our dream is valid nevertheless.
