Doping is beyond track: Rugby, footballers named in probe committee report

BY GILBERT WANDERA

There is widespread use of banned substances in rugby and football a Kenya Anti-Doping Probe Committee report has revealed.

The committee chaired by Moni Wekesa, appointed in 2013, reached that decision in its findings that were presented in a report to Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario yesterday.

Giving highlights on the report, Wekesa said unlike otherwise thought, most footballers use bhang to boost their performance on the pitch.

“We also discovered that rugby players have been using food supplements  laced with banned substances,” he said.

The committee also revealed they widened their scope beyond athletics to focus on football and rugby so as to get to the root bottom of the problem.

“We talked to a number of footballers and were shocked that most of them take bhang openly. It is not just the players but coaches as well.

“This is because there are no structures put in place to help tests them. They easily get away with it,” said Wekesa.

Caught out

Only one Kenyan footballer Philip Opiyo has been banned for taking bhang. This was in 2006 when he was playing in South Africa.

There was also the case of David Munyasia, a Kenyan boxer, was the first athlete to be found in violation of International Olympic Committee anti-doping rules at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

In August, 2004, the IOC announced that Munyasia, a bantamweight, had tested positive for cathine. Four times the allowed limit of 5 micrograms per millilitre was found to be present in Munyasia’s urine. He was immediately barred from participating in the Games. Munyasia confessed he was regular user of miraa (qat), a popular stimulant in Kenya.

The committee said Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) officials had admitted to giving national team players food supplements laced with banned substances.

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“KRU officials have been very co-operative and agreed to stop it. They even handed over the supplements and we plan to destroy the same,”said Wekesa.

But the committee seemed to go soft on local atheletes insisting that the practise is not as widely spread as thought.

“Athletes caught in the vice did not do it deliberatley. Some were sick and took medicine which ended up being laced with banned substance.

“However, there are some who did it deliberatley. Between 2009 and now a total of 32 were banned. Half of them were found to have used banned substances deliberatley,” he explained.

Wekesa further revealed that a number of phamarcies were selling banned substances and there was need to close them down.

The report, handed to the cabinet secretary had names of individuals who give banned substances to sportsmen and women.

Wario promised to implement the report as soon as possible and called for increased awareness of the vice within the sports circles.

“Reports that our athletes were using drugs were beginning to paint the country negatively. This will help us deal with this matter,”he said.