Doping menace has grown as officials bury heads in the sand

When the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) forwarded its Code to be included in Kenyan laws it expected just that without any additions or deletions.

The World Anti-Doping Code is a the document harmonising policies to fight against the use of banned performance enhancing substances.

But someone in the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak), which was preparing the bill to be discussed in Parliament, edited some words and mixed tenses in some sections of the Code.

Wada board was furious with this tampering, coming in the wake of an international uproar after the body admitted failing to do proper research on the drug Meldonium which tennis star Maria Sharapova and 170 others were accused of using to enhance performance. The admission compromised Wada’s image.

Thus Wada decided to act tough in the Kenyan case. Wade was particularly aware of the deliberate fencing by Kenya in dealing with the doping menace over the last two decades.

Wada had admitted several times of “being frustrated” by the merry-go- round circus “slow progress” Kenyans had perfected, always coming up with laughable but annoying short-lived stop-gap measures that only postponed the problem since 1993 when the first high profile doping case was reported in Kenya.

Also, over the years, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) treated Kenya with kid gloves.

The world athletics body cajoled, advised and even pleaded with the country’s sports authorities to enact doping laws in tandem with international regulations without much success until Wada came calling armed with a big stick three years ago ready to take action.

The IAAF, as it emerged last year, had through its top leadership, condoned doping as was the case with Russia which is sitting out in the cold after Wada declared it non-compliant. The former IAAF president Lamine Diack is under police investigations in France over allegations of receiving bribes from the Russian athletics federation to hush up matters and for money laundering.

Similar allegations of hushing up doping have also been made against three suspended officials of Athletics Kenya, David Okeyo, Isaiah Kiplagat and Joseph Kinyua. The outcome of their case presided over by IAAF appointed solicitor, former Kenya Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharad Rao is due in two weeks times.

While Wada was grappling over what to do with Kenya, Adak was absolving former Athletics Kenya CEO Isaac Mwangi over allegations of demanding bribes from cheats eliciting a tough rejoinder from Rao, who is also handling this case.

How Adak ended up handling the case remains a mystery and this raised eyebrows as protocol was not followed.

On May 12, Wada did strike with a non compliance verdict on the country and put the future of Kenya’s participation in the Rio Summer Olympics in jeopardy. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who two weeks earlier had signed the Anti-Doping Bill into law with much fanfare at State House, summoned Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and Kenya Anti-Doping Agency boss Jasper Rugut for a briefing.

Certainly, diplomacy was in play and even IAAF president Sebastian Coe expressed his misgivings on Kenya’s behaviour but was quick to point out that the world body had no intentions of punish Kenya. The final decision on that though rests with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Although Wario admitted receiving communication from Wada on its decision, this information had earlier been leaked to the British Broadcasting Corporation, which broke the story last Thursday.

This marked the climax of a journey Wada had embarked on three years ago after IOC had directed Kenya to put its house in order following a spike in doping cases in Kenya or face sanctions.

However, things went terribly wrong right from the beginning when Adak was formed in 2013.

The body remained more or less moribund from inception until last year when a drug expose by a German television channel put Kenya on the spot over increased cases of doping jolted the sports ministry from its reverie.

However, the sports fraternity, in particular athletics, felt left out when the Adak board was constituted minus some individuals they felt were leading authorities in doping matters. Questions still linger on whether Adak has the capacity to be effective. Rules point out that Adak should even rope in horse racing and motorsport.

Tellingly, the International Motorsport body (FIA) has listed some cardio medicines - beta blockers - as stimulants when used by normal healthy individual as they relax the person who attempts risky stunts without fear or caution like driving a car at 200kph. Miraa (khat) use is also prevalent in the sport.

Unfortunately, athletics seems to have taken centre stage where doping is concern although substance use for enhancing performance has been regularly reported in many Olympic sports like weightlifting, boxing, cricket, motorsport, rugby and volleyball. Two cases come in mind: boxer David Munyasia and weightlifter David Obiero. Munyasia was expelled from the 2004 Games after testing positive for cathine, a substance found in miraa, classified by Wada as a stimulant.

In 2007, Obiero was banned by the International Weightlifting Federation after testing positive for tamoxifen, an agent with anti-estrogenic activity.

Kenyan sports officials did not impress upon the government the gravity of the matter bearing in mind the new Sports Cabinet Secretary Wario was a greenhorn in matters sports and appears to have remained so, groping in total darkness and unnecessarily engaging Athletics Kenya in endless supremacy battles that have no helped the country.

Wada and the IOC noted with growing concern a spike in doping cases, and were alarmed by Kenyan officials standard reaction that cheats were minor runners and not the elite of the country. During a world congress in Johannesburg on November 13, 2013, Kenya and Jamaica - two of world’s top athletics nations - were accused of doing nothing to curb doping. The IOC threatened to deny Kenya and Jamaica from competing in the Olympics unless concrete anti-doping systems were set up in 12 months.

Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, has promised a “zero tolerance” policy against drug cheats and warned countries which are deemed non-compliant with the Wada code they risk being expelled from the Games.

In a report to the congress, Bach said: “The (IOC) charter is very clear that this (expulsion) can be one of the results. It’s not the only one and not the exclusive one. But non-compliance can result in the exclusion from competitions.

He further added: “The Wada code is very clear. Countries which are not compliant can be excluded from events including the Olympic Games. What we need is the greatest possible deterrence. We are united in our zero-tolerance attitude to doping.”

The report was ignored by the local press but appeared in the Daily Mail of UK. Before Wada came calling armed with a big stick, the IAAF was on the Kenyan case first highlighted in 1993 when John Ngugi was slapped with a four-year ban for refusing to take an out-of-competition-dope test. At least over 30 athletes have tested positive.

If disgraced former marathon star Rita Jeptoo’s two-year ban for using performance enhancing substances was a circus, the Ngugi story is a tragedy. On February 11, 1993, two white people - a man and woman - came calling at Ngugi’s Boston Wholesalers store in his home town of Nyahururu. Ngugi adopted the store name after winning his fifth IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Boston under snowy conditions the previous year.

Ngugi was on a recovery path since his previous world title in 1990 and missing the Barcelona Olympics and was gunning for a sixth title and a world championship gold medal in the 5,000 metres. As a local celebrity Ngugi’s store was patronised by friends, athletes and lay-abouts while his wife tended the cash box. There was usually a lot of banter.

That afternoon, John Whetton introduced himself and without much ado produced a very small bottle and commanded Ngugi to show him the nearest toilet where he would stand outside as Ngugi extracted a urine sample. Ngugi would hear none of this, so too did the store patrons. They reasoned their man was mortgaging his royal oats to the devil.

He was a serviceman and said he could only do so in the presence of his superiors and athletics officials. Ngugi was later tested in front of AK officials and proven clean. The IAAF however imposed an immediate four years ban without giving Ngugi a chance to defend himself.

AK did nothing to protect Ngugi as they hide their own weakness of failing to educate athletes on doping.

It required the intervention of elite athletes led by Moses Tanui to write an appeal letter to the IAAF leading to Ngugi’s reprieve 23 months later.

The ban halted the career of one of the finest distance runner of his generation and left him a pauper.

His comeback bid came a cropper and today Ngugi is still a bitter man crying for thousands who up to now have very little knowledge of doping.
Exit Ngugi and enters Pamela Jepchumba 10 years later, who was nabbed for using blood doping using EPO.

Her case was swept under the carpet. Neither AK nor the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock), a moribund organization that has abdicated its responsibility in helping Kenya overcome the doping menace, bothered to act.

This was about the same time Greek athletes Kostas Kederis and Ekaterini Thanou were also ruined by accusations of dodging drug tests and jeopardizing their careers prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Footballer Rio Ferdinand the former Manchester United and England defender was banned for eight months and missed Euro 2004 for a similar offence. Now with dope sold over the counter Adak may need police power to fully carry out its mandate.