Kenya 20 Shillings Banknote, 1993

Known for its Serengeti landscape which extends southward into Tanzania, KENYA sits east of Lake Victoria* and west of the Indian Ocean. The country's currency is the Kenyan Shilling, subdivided into 100 cents. Previous versions of Kenya's 20 Shillings banknote were not as colorful as 1993 version. This banknote features Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, Kenya's second president serving from 1978 to 2002. The opposite side includes a male Olympic runner and Moi International Sports Complex (MISC), a multi-purpose athletic facility in Kasarani near Nairobi — Kenya's capital.

Who's the Runner?
There is hardly any concrete information on who is the man "running towards the stadium"; most sources indicate that he is an anonymous Olympic athlete and meant to represent all of Kenya's amazing athletes. Interestingly, 20 Shilling banknotes in the 1986 to 1990 series do not have this athlete; his first money appearance was in 1993, according to the photographs in the PMG World Paper Money Price Guide (↗). Therefore, this athlete could be a participant in Olympics Games during or after that time period. According to the database on the official Olympics website (↗), Kenyan running athletes (including steeplechase) earned four gold medals in the 1988 Seoul (South Korea) Summer Olympics and two gold medals in the 1992 Barcelona (Spain) Summer Olympics — the two Olympic Games occurring before the 1993 banknote was printed. In my personal opinion, if this banknote's athlete illustration were to resemble a real athlete, I would say any one of the 1988 gold-medalist runners could be depicted: Paul Ereng (800 m), Julius Kariuki (3,000 meter steeplechase), John Ngugi (5,000 m), or Peter Rono (1,500 m). Matthew Birir, the Kenyan 3,000 m steeplechase gold medalist competing in the 1992 Barcelona games, could also be a close match.

* Lake Victoria is the world's second-largest freshwater lake by area, the largest tropical lake, and Africa's largest lake.