Let’s entrench doping laws in all federations

I may not have attended the Sports Ministry seminar held in Nyeri recently, but from what I have gathered from Athletics Kenya boss Jack Tuwei, there is light at the end of the tunnel if the ideas discussed can be effected.

While a wide range of topics were tackled, I took interest in facilities and doping which touches on the sport that is very close to my heart.

Anti doping Agency of Kenya Chief executive officer, Japhter Rugut gave a master piece on matters doping and I hope the government will assist him take the proposal to the next level.

One of the bright spots in his presentation was the call to national sports federations to include anti-doping provisions in their constitutions in order to help deal effectively with the doping menace.

Rugut also promised to embark on a rigorous exercise of monitoring compliance of federations to ensure they meet the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) Code threshold as stipulated in the rules with non-compliant association facing possible deregistration.

With the current situation especially in athletics, we need to act like yesterday. The country needs to have zero tolerance on doping and athletes must take responsibility for their actions.

In Kenya, we only have time to build talent and not fight doping wars for people who are well aware of what they were getting themselves into. So far so good for Adak but they need the support of every federation if this war is to be won.

On facilities, I am just disappointed that we have stalled after closing Kenya’s biggest stadiums.

Truth be told, we need to give both Moi, Kasarani and Nyayo facilities priority to save our athletes the hassle of having to travel longer distances to find a training venue.

How I wish Nyayo Stadium refurbishment work was completed like yesterday. By the way, the fact that I have opted to talk about facilities and doping should not be misconstrued to mean the other topics were not important. My hope is that the Ministry of Sports will prioritise to act on the proposals from the seminar.

We shouldn’t allow the Nyeri report to gather dust on the shelves as it has been the case with other proposals.

All said and done; bravo to the Sports Ministry for organising the first ever seminar involving them, the sports federations and journalists. I can’t wait to see the next step of action.