Government must act now to slay doping monster
What you need to know:
- We are yet to get it right in as far as the war against doping is concerned.
- I have said it before that criminalizing doping may be a stop gap measure but it’s definitely not a solution.
We are yet to get it right in as far as the war against doping is concerned.
We are definitely not going to put off this fire without ramming ourselves properly.
While doping in Kenya is sort of a reality now, the people who are supposed to guide us to the safety zones have decided to politicize the matter for their own selfish benefit.
The world is watching and it is not the time to use doping as a weapon to hit at each other. We need solutions like yesterday because no matter how many press conferences we hold, we are not going to wish away this matter easily.
I have said it before that criminalizing doping may be a stop gap measure but it’s definitely not a solution.
When findings first revealed traces of doping in the camps around Iten and Kaptagat courtesy of a Germany television, we marked the “pesky” journalists as sworn enemies and did nothing.
No one bothered to follow it up. Instead, we decided to castigate them in every forum that was available. What followed was a bombshell amid our top runners being nabbed.
This same trend seem to be repeating itself after Rita Jeptoo tested positive for EPO. Prior to Rita’s case, there was a team headed by Moni Wekesa that was appointed to look into the issue.
The report has been made available but implementation seems to be a problem.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
What should we do? We cannot end bhang smoking by just nabbing smokers. The masterminds and agents of doping must be found.
It is even surprising that despite athletes begging for seminars to be enlightened on the matter no one seem bothered with them.
Doping is not an easy subject and not all the people who talk and write about it seem to understand it. We can blame the athletes when leaders want to sit back and discuss the matter from their Nairobi comfort.
This athletes have been waiting in vain for AK especially to organise forums to engage on the matter.
Even if we want to assume that the senior athletes know what goes on with doping, please lets talk to the juniors because most of them are confused. We need to talk to them in a language they can understand about what doping is all about.
The AK committee on doping needs to work from the grassroots. Besides the government will also have to do more instead of acting like watchdogs. It has the mandate to enforce the rules
Athletics is not like football where the governing body intervenes when government takes action. IAAF wants a clean sport and the idea that Kenya will be banned if it takes drastic steps is self-defeating.
