During his visit to Kenya, Lord Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics said that there are no state-level coverups to do with doping in the East African nation. He added that the reason why Kenya was not banned as Russia was, had to do with the effort the government and Athletics Kenya are putting into fighting doping. However, the state-level coverups in Russia are very different than the rogue and individual doping that happens in Kenya.
Coe told the BBC in an article titled, No drug ‘cover-up’ in Kenyan athletics – Lord Coe, “we took a different approach to Kenya from the approach we took with Russia because they were two different cases,”
Lord @sebcoe reaffirmed the commitment from the @WorldAthletics and the @aiu_athletics to work with Kenya to ensure eradication of doping amongst our athletes. pic.twitter.com/01wCtWpVoR
— Ministry Of Youth Affairs, Sports & The Arts (@moscakenya) January 5, 2023
“The case against Russia was about cover-ups that were planned at the state authority level, but there is no suggestion that this is the case in Kenya. In fact, quite the reverse.
“The fact that all these agencies are in alignment and prepared to work alongside World Athletics and the Athletic Integrity Unit is a very, very important statement.”
Currently, Kenya — according to BBC — leads with 40 per cent of all doping cases globally. There were approximately 30 suspensions of their athletes in 2022.
Coe warned that the road to recovery will be a long one.
Kenya’s sports minister, Abadu Namwamba, has pledged to spend $25m over the next five years to clean up the sport and also hopes to turn doping into a criminal offence.
“Rather than hide from these grim statistics, rather than bury our head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, we have accepted the challenge,” he said.
