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Kenya Olympic body demands more from gov't to curb doping

Xinhua, December 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenya's Olympic body is demanding more efforts in the fight against doping after another seven athletes that were reprimanded on Friday for cheating.

National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) chairman Kipchoge Keino said on Tuesday that unless the government takes full charge in the fight against the scourge, more youths in the country will end up taking drugs to enhance their performance in a bid to escape poverty.

"Our youths need to be educated and helped to understand why it is wrong to take dope. We need to put more money in anti-doping campaign, but the government is not taking its rightful spot in this fight," Keino said in Nairobi.

The Olympic boss is back in the country after a visit in Mauritius where he met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to discuss the escalating doping cases on the sidelines of Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) meeting.

The government has only allocated 50,000 U.S. dollars to its newly formed Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), which is not enough to carry out 100 tests, with each costing about 2,000 dollars. Currently all tests in Kenya are done either in Johannesburg or Doha (Qatar).

China Anti-Doping Agency (Chanida), Norway and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are in talks with the government to establish a testing laboratory center in Nairobi to cater for the East Africa and Great Lakes region.

Last week, former World Cross country champion Emily Chebet was banned by Athletics Kenya for four years for doping together with six other athletes.

In the group, 400m runner Joyce Zakary and 400m hurdler Koki Manunga, who failed drugs tests at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing in August, were banned for four years. They tested positive for furosemide.

The other four athletes banned were long distance runners Agnes Jepkosgei, Bernard Mwendia, Judy Jesire Kimuge and Lilian Moraa Marita.

Keino said these athletes need to be interrogated to know who supplied them with the banned stuff to help apprehend the abettors. Endit