The Kenyans government has written to the World Athletics asking it not to ban the country from the as they seek to clean up the mess that has been created by few rotten individuals who have placed the country in the bad light by their doping menace as it intensifies to clean the entire sport.
The Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts, Ababu Namwamba, spoke through a press release saying, “We cannot allow our nation to be banned because of the actions of some greedy unethical individuals.”.
“We will target and deal decisively with the criminals and their syndicates. We must work together to eradicate doping and cheating from athletics and sports in general.” Said Namwamba.
The government has told the governing body that it has committed an annual amount of $5 million over the next five years for the fight against doping, the Daily Nation newspaper reported.
It is also taking “firm measures” and had a commitment of “zero tolerance” towards doping, he said.
Fifty-five Kenyan athletes are currently banned and eight provisionally suspended, according to the data from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) now World Athletics included the distance-running superpower on a list of nations most at risk of doping in July 2018. It came as part of new regulations by the WA Council put more responsibility on National Federations to deal with the problem. Kenya is among four countries included in Category A – member federations the World Athletics believe are most likely to have doping problems – along with Ethiopia, Belarus, hosts of next year’s European Games, and Ukraine.
The AIU has that they have received an email from the Cabinet Secretary but they are yet to respond to it as they await full communication from the Monaco meeting that will be held on Tuesday next week.
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