Welcome to the Evolving Man Project’s “Evolved Man of the Week” profile. Each week we will highlight an individual that embodies what it means to be an evolved person, famous and non-famous individual alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the athlete, mentor, and founder of the Tsavora Fencing Club, Faruq Mburu Wanyoike.
Wanyoike experienced an introduction to crime at a young age while growing up in Huruma, Nairobi County. During an interview with Voice of America (VOA), he revealed that the gang he was associated with would use guns and other crude weapons to commit crimes in the estate and neighboring areas.
While reflecting on his childhood, Wanyioke remembers how criminal gangs introduced him to crime even before he had made sense of life in a neighborhood controlled by them. The flashy lifestyles of the neighborhood boys involved with these gangs caught the eye of nine-year-old Faruq.
He would ask his mother innocently if he could spend time with them. Little did she know that her child’s newfound friends had ulterior motives when she allowed him to do so. A scene of violent armed robbery brought Faruq face to face with death barely a decade earlier. Now and then, a moment of dread crosses his mind as he watches his ward’s fence, their foils poised.
In a rough neighborhood of Nairobi, the expansive capital city of Kenya, an unexpected sport has become a source of passion for young people, offering them an alternative to drugs, violence, and crime. Despite equipment challenges, Africa News reports that the Tsavora Fencing Club is making an enormous difference in the community by keeping adolescents occupied and even sending some of them to the national team.
Wanyoike disclosed that most of his former gang comrades have died or are behind bars. The fencer also recalled a life-threatening ordeal that informed his decision to abandon the dangerous life. Shortly after that, destiny had him cross paths with Stephen Okalo Kuya, the secretary general of the Kenya Fencers’ Federation, at a dance and fitness center.
Kuya instantly thought Faruq had an athlete’s physique and asked if he would be interested in fencing. The young man had never heard of the sport and needed Kuya to show him what he meant.
“The moment I saw the blades, I recalled seeing them in movies. I instantly fell in love with the sport,”
After training under Kuya for a year, he received a scholarship in South Africa. In 2021, he successfully got a fitness and coaching science certificate and a diploma in fencing. Wanyoike has competed in fencing worldwide, including in Cairo, Egypt, in 2022 for the Fencing World Championships and Milan, Italy, in 2023 for the Epee Championships. Wanyoike holds a diploma in coaching Master Fencing from FIE Coaching Academy Johannesburg, South Africa, and a high certificate in physical fitness from ETA College Johannesburg.
Here is Wanyoike in his own words about giving the young people he trains an alternative to a life of crime:
“I wouldn’t want them to be drawn into the kind of life I lived back then…I am emotional because they are in the same neighborhood I grew up in. They face the same challenges I did.”
We at the Evolving Man Project wish Wanyoike and his students of Tsavora Fencing Club continued success. Kudos to Wanyoike for providing Kenyan youth with another path forward to help them avoid the dangerous mistakes he once made. Wanyoike is living proof that all people can achieve good things, even if they made mistakes in the past. Everyone deserves a second chance. Today, we honor Faruq Mburu Wanyoike as our Evolved Man of the Week.
Evolving Folks Project 