Coca-Cola and East African Breweries should pay Julius Yego for exploiting his name

Julius Yego poses on the podium during the victory ceremony for the men's javelin throw athletics event at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing on August 27, 2015. PHOTO | GREG BAKER |

What you need to know:

  • Reach out to athlete: They should have the decency to reach out to Yego and pay him a handsome amount for using his name without permission.

When basketball superstar Michael Jordan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, an American supermarket chain spotted a business opportunity.

They published an advertisement with a picture of Jordan congratulating him for his achievement and included a caption below it promoting a $2 (Sh200) beef steak: “Michael Jordan …You are a cut above,” it read.

The basketball legend was not amused, for good reason. Here was a commercial concern trying to make money from his name without consulting or paying him.

He sued. The judge and jurors agreed with the star and earlier this month, the supermarket chain was ordered to pay Jordan $8.9 million (Sh890 million).

“No one — whether or not they’re a public figure — should have to worry about their identity being used without their permission,” said Mr Jordan. “The case was not about the money as I plan to donate the proceeds to charity. It was about honesty and integrity.”

“I hope this case sends a clear message, both here in the United States and around the world, that I will continue to be vigilant about protecting my name and identity. I also hope the size of the monetary reward will deter others from using someone else’s identity and believe they will only pay a small penalty.”

The whole nation and much of the sporting world held its breath on Wednesday as Julius Yego’s massive javelin throw flew into the Beijing evening sky, hanging there for what seemed like an eternity and then landing at 92.72m, the longest throw by any athlete in 14 years.

Leading corporate brands rushed to benefit from Yego’s feat. Leading the pack was East African Breweries Limited which put out an online message congratulating Yego and promoting Tusker, in a poster with remarkable echoes of the one Michael Jordan sued over.

Co-op Bank and Coca-Cola were not far behind. This is outrageous. It is bad enough that in the age of chief executives’ obsession with the bottom-line, major companies no longer support sports as the likes of Kenneth Matiba did when at one point Kenya Breweries Limited boasted the best football, rugby and boxing teams in the country.

Yego is a classic example of a self-made man who got to the top through a striking level of application and drive.

Among the few who can share in the glory of his achievement are the agent who connected him with Finnish coach Petteri Piironen, the man who helped him refine his technique.

Orange Kenya, one of his early supporters, deserves some credit, too, for supporting him when he was little known. The others are joyriders. Coke, East African Breweries and others should have the decency to reach out to Yego and pay him a handsome amount to settle for using his name without permission.

If they don’t, Yego should sue to set an example and help shield athletes from such exploitation in future.

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One of the most important elections in Africa this year is unfolding in Tanzania. Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), one of the last of the independence-era political parties still in power, faces, for the first time, a real fight to stay in power.

It is an election which deserves great attention because whatever happens, Tanzania is unlikely to be the same again and even a CCM victory over the united opposition will force it to reassess its approach to leadership.

Trust Kenyans, though, to transport their ethnic politics across the border. After I wrote a piece last week about the evident buzz that the opposition has generated, I received letters from Jubilee supporters who expressed happiness that Raila Odinga, a friend of CCM’s candidate John Magufuli, seemed on course to be among the losers of the election.

Cord supporters, on the other hand, thundered that the poll of taxi drivers was “Jubilee-sponsored”.

Never mind that, as in Nigeria, you would expect Jubilee supporters to be happy with a demonstration of the staying power of ruling parties and opposition guys to be backing the challengers.

Just another small illustration of how the historic Kenyatta-Odinga feud informs Kenyan politics and drives voters into a miasma of irrationality.

[email protected]; Twitter: @mutigam