Namwamba: Kenya needs assistance, not severe sanctions

The government has said that any action taken against Kenya by World Athletics concerning doping on Tuesday in Rome, Italy will be drastic and devastating but also unwarranted.

Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Ababu Namwamba noted that what Kenya needed now was support and not suspension, adding that the country has scaled the war against doping by increased funding.

World Athletics, Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are set to meet Tuesday in Rome to review the world's doping status where Kenya will be on the agenda.

Namwamba on Wednesday last week disclosed that the government has increased funding of Sh619 million for a period of five years in the fight against doping.

Besides funding, Namwamba revealed that the country’s security apparatus was zeroing in on a ring that has been involved in the increased doping cases in the country.

Namwamba, who was addressing the media at his Maktaba Kuu office accompanied by Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei, disclosed that one person was arrested on Sunday and was arraigned in Eldoret on Monday.

“What we now need is not action against the Kenyan flag but against criminal elements and individuals that are involved in doping,” Namwamba said. “Kenya needs support to end doping and not suspension or ban.”

Namwamba said that in his fruitful communication with World Athletics President Sebastian Coe in the past few weeks, he reiterated Kenya’s firm stand on zero tolerance against doping.

“The message was that even though we have numerous doping cases reported, it is not state-sponsored. In Kenya, the state is at the forefront of fighting doping and not like the case with countries like Russia,“ said Namwamba.

With a commitment of Sh 619 million annually, Namwamba said World Athletics will see increased activities and deployment of resources to ADAK and AK in testing, investigation and enforcement across the whole spectrum of taking decisive action against doping.

Tuwei said Kenya has achieved a lot in its battle against doping with the formation of ADAK in 2016 and World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada)-approved testing laboratory in Nairobi in September 2018.

"Testing is expensive but the increased  funding will escalate the war on doping with more athletes joining both AIU and ADAK testing pools," said Tuwei.

Speculation was rife that Kenya faces an imminent ban from global competitions owing to the worrying increase in the number of its athletes caught violating anti-doping rules.

More than 30 Kenyan athletes, mostly elite, have been suspended in the past one year for flouting various anti-doping rules.

In 2018, World Athletics placed Kenya among four countries in ‘Category A’, the others being Ethiopia, Belarus and Ukraine.