Kenyan athletes protest against doping, graft in national body

Kenyan athletes are staging a demonstration outside their offices in Nairobi on Monday, demanding the resignation of their track and field body officials over alleged graft and doping cover-ups.

   The sit-in comes just days after Athletics Kenya (AK) top officials were accused of abetting doping and covering up results of suspected cheats by World Anti-Doping Agency and local coaches.

   Outgoing president Isaiah Kiplagat and his vice president David Okeyo have also been accused of taking bribes to endorse contract signing with Nike.

   "We are taking united action to bring sanity to Athletics Kenya management and leadership," the protesting athletes under the umbrella body Professional Athletes' Association of Kenya (PAAK) said in a joint statement.

   PAAK said documents in their possession, which Xinhua has a copy, indicates that Kenyan officials received bribes in signing Nike sponsorship, which saw Kenya drop their earlier quest to take over Chinese Sports Apparel Li Ning.

   In 2010, Athletics Kenya had agreed with Pamodzi Sports Marketing, a company IAAF had agreed to market the sport in Africa and Asia to sign with Beijing based Li Ning, but maneuvers by Kenyan government and sports administrators led to a still birth to the deal.

   Instead, Athletics Kenya used the negotiations with Li Ning to improve their bargain and renew their contract with USA Sports Apparel Nike.

   Now the athletes are concerned the same documents can be used by IAAF to ban Kenya.

   Wilson Kipsang, who is PAAK Chairmen, confirmed from his training base in western Kenya's Iten town, that the demonstration was indeed being done by athletes based in Nairobi.

   "The writing is on the wall and we have decided to take the matter right to the door step of our association. We are tired and face the risk of being banned. We must act now," he said.

   The athletes carried placard written on "corrupt go home" and "your time is over", which were targeting Kiplagat, who has said he still can remain in office until 2017.

   The athletes laid siege on their Athletics Kenya (AK) headquarters for better part of the day, saying the officials were also abetting doping, which has seen over 40 athletes banned from Kenya in the last two years.

   AK has allocated only 2,000 U.S. dollars for anti-doping campaigns, mainly going to sensitization, which athletes believe is too little. 

   It takes about 500 dollars to do one test and athletes want AK to supplement out-of-competition tests done by IAAF and World Anti-Doping Agency.  Endi