Athletics Kenya national executive member on Sunday admitted that drug testing in Kenya has been extremely poor.
Athletics Kenya Nairobi Branch chairman Barnaba Korir, who also sits in the highest decision making organ of the national association, said for a long time there was enough naivete to believe Kenya was immune from doping.
"The warning signs were there, mostly notably in 2012, when Matthews Kisorio tested positive during the Kenyan Olympic trials and who later told a German TV documentary that doping was rife in Kenya," Korir told Xinhua in Nairobi.
"When he weighed in by giving a detailed description of his blood-doping and steroid regime, claiming that 'everyone told me that I wasn't the only one doing it', the association should have taken notice and acted," he said.
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Korir, who is also a former international athlete, said it is no longer a charge but a grim and sobering reality that the threat has put at stake the wonderfully clean reputation of Kenyan long distance running.
Korir's assertions come in the wake of the Nov. 2 damning revelation that Kenya's top woman marathon runner Rita Jeptoo had tested positive for EPO, and although her B-sample has yet to confirm the finding, no one is exactly screaming her innocence.
Jeptoo, 33, received the damning report on her way to New York to the New York Marathon to collect the 500,000 U.S. dollars World Marathon Majors bonus prize, following her back-to-wins in the Boston and Chicago marathons.
She won't get that prize now. Instead, Jeptoo joins the fast growing list of Kenyans to test positive since 2012, now running at 19.
Saying that he believes most cases emerge from naivete by young and raw runners most of who take over the counter drugs, Korir nonetheless avers that now it does feel like all Kenyan runners are being tarnished with the same brush that everyone now doubts Kenyan athletics.
"Athletics Kenya ignored the warnings. Kisorio's claims were never properly investigated, and AK president Isaiah Kiplagat repeatedly downplayed the accusations and sudden rise in positive tests," Korir said.
