TAKE ACTION, OR ELSE...We’ll be banned if we don’t act on doping, says Kipchoge Keino

Kenya has been warned to take action against doping or face four-year ban from all international competitions. Kipchoge Keino, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya chair said the World Anti-doping Agency is very categorical on the matter.

“It is no longer a threat. Wada is seriously considering banning Kenya from all international competitions for its failure to take action on doping matters,” Keino said upon arrival from United States where he and NOCK Secretary General, FK Paul, met with WADA officials.

“They think Kenya is sweeping doping issues under the carpet. They asked why, for instance, no action has not been taken against the two athletes who were sent packing from the World Championships in Beijing,” said Keino, a former two-time Olympic gold medalist. “We are going to meet with the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya tomorrow to chart the way forward. Things are very serious,” he said.

Kenyan athletes have been accused of doping and their victories in various marathons and road races are being viewed suspiciously.

Reports say up to 35 athletes have failed doping tests in the past two years, but Rita Jeptoo, former three-time winner of Boston and Chicago marathon, is the biggest name to have failed the test. She is serving two-year ban.

Joyce Zakari and Francisca Koki Manunga failed dope tests at the World Championships in Beijing in August. Effort to reach AK chair, Jack Tuwei for comment on latest developments were fruitless.

Road runner Josephine Jepkoech Jepkorir and 800m athlete Agatha Jeruto Kimaswai were suspended for two years in September for doping.

 

The reports come on the heels of the arrest of Lamine Diack, the former International Association of Athletics Federations president who is being accused of money-laundering and conspiracy in doping.

David Howman, the WADA director general told New York Times this week they had held at least a half-dozen meetings with Kenyan officials, in Kenya, over the past few years.

“WADA has even brought in experts from the anti-doping agencies in Norway and China to hold Kenya’s hand in building its own programme. Yet even that hasn’t spurred action, which is unacceptable for a nation whose runners are routinely the first to cross the world’s finish lines.

“What Kenya is doing is unfair to its athletes, whose achievements increasingly face skepticism. But it is also unfair, obviously, to the Kenyans’ opponents,” reported the New York Times.