Doping crisis: Spotlight swings to Kenya

After the Russian revelations this week, questions are being asked about African nation that topped table at the World Championships but has 40 athletes banned for drugs

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When the Russian whistleblower who prompted the damning report into widespread doping in his country was asked to react to the subsequent allegations, he shifted the geographical focus.

Andrey Baranov, the Russian sports agent who sent a signed deposition to the International Association of Athletics Federations 18 months ago, said: “It’s wrong just to be focusing on Russia. There should be similar investigation into countries like Kenya. Their top athletes are earning far more than the Russians, yet their levels of testing are very limited.”

So could Kenya be the next nation to feel the wrath of both the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency?

The latter body is growing increasingly frustrated by a lack of action to combat an increasing problem in the East African nation, with in the region of 40 athletes banned from competing. Sir Craig Reedie, Wada’s president, said yesterday: “I think we well understand the problems and the Kenyan authorities have been slow to react, which is a frustration.”

While that is not quite a threat, Wada has made it clear Kenya needs to get its house in order to avoid falling victim to sanctions.

Just four days before the independent commission report in Russia, those responsible for tackling doping in Kenya – the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak), the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, the local zone of Regional Anti-Doping Organisations, and Athletics Kenya – met to discuss how best to eradicate the scourge of doping.

In a report seen by The Independent, the organisations stated: “We acknowledge the seriousness of the doping issue in Kenya and its consequences on the future of our sports men and women.”

Proposals included the proper formation of Adak as a “robust and autonomous” anti-doping agency and for the government to fast-track improvements, including an anti-doping policy waiting for approval in Parliament and the long-promised satellite doping facility in Nairobi.

The report revealed that the Kenyan government had spent just £100,000 on tackling doping – UK Anti-Doping’s budget, which is largely state funded, is £7m. And the closest testing facility is five hours away in Doha, Qatar.

In their defence, the authorities last month arrested what they called “medical practitioners aiding doping”, some of whom were exposed in the Citizen TV documentary Poisoned Spikes.

But there are genuine concerns that not enough is being done to tackle the problem. Valentijn Trouw, a Dutch sports agent for Global Sports Communication whose clients include London Marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge and Haile Gebrselassie, was worried enough on Thursday to write a lengthy email to all the World Marathon Majors organisers, including the London Marathon.

“I’m still convinced the vast majority of all athletes in Kenya are clean,” he wrote but warned: “Athletics Kenya should use what’s happening now in Russia as a good warning for themselves to be much more active when it comes to doping issues.”

He also called on the authorities to “work openly together with Wada for a doping lab” and “act on those found positive during the World Championships”.

Kenya topped the medal table at the Worlds in Beijing in August, with seven golds and 16 medals in all, but two athletes were sent home for failing drugs tests on the eve of the championships: Joyce Zakary and Koki Manunga.

Evelyn Watta, the Kenyan journalist who broke the news of the failed tests, said: “There was a big relief on Monday with the Russia investigation that Kenyan athletes weren’t implicated also. But the message to Kenya is, ‘If you don’t do your job, we’ll do it for you’, because when doping claims first came out, the initial reaction was to deny, deny, deny.

“Doping is rife. It’s so competitive to make the Kenyan team, that’s almost tougher than the Olympic final. So some are tempted to dope. We have an expression in Kenya that every day a runner is born.

“But I don’t think the Kenyan situation is so bad as Russia, although it’s like Kenya has been given a second chance, some leeway.”

Watta believes a lack of education is to blame for much of the doping, a stance echoed by the former marathon runner David Bedford, who was the first British athlete to use Kenya for altitude training and has worked closely with the country in his long-term role with the London Marathon.

“The athletes are not worldly-wise, and for the most part it’s the young, naive guys, not the top athletes here,” he said. “It’s difficult without education if you go to a doctor – and I use the term loosely – and he says this pill will make you run the marathon three minutes quicker and it’s free of charge but in exchange for, say, 25 per cent of the winnings. There are athletes that might do that.”

In Russia, the accusation has been made that athletes were able to pay large sums to IAAF officials for tests to be covered up, a matter under investigation by French authorities.

On whether such a situation exists in Kenya, Bedford said: “Were these people in Kenya able to pay someone off within the IAAF in order to resolve a problem with a failed doping test? There’s no evidence of that but if you’re talking about a Kenyan athlete they’d be earning as much on the world stage as, say, a Liliya Shobukhova [who claims she was bribed in order for her failed test to be kept silent]. So they would have the finances needed to pay.”

Bedford described the situation as a mess but added that it would “get better” with good governance.

Allegations were made in a German documentary from former Kenyan runner Frimin Kiplagat Kipchoge that some testers had called up athletes before visits and rearranged if necessary while his countryman Ronald Kipchumba, currently banned for a positive EPO test, claimed officials had demanded money to cover up failed tests.

Kip Keino, the head of Kenya’s Olympic Committee and a former Olympic champion, who met with Wada in the United States earlier this year, said the body might end up “recommending Kenya be banned from all competitions for four years, including the 2016 Rio Olympics”.

But Christine Wambui Mugera, executive manager of the regional anti-doping zone, which covers nine African nations, said: “The doping issue here is significant but there has recently been quite a step in the right direction.

“There’s been an increasing number of doping cases documented in the media and that’s helped the government to take some action. We have been aware of the situation for a while and it’s fair to say that the government is finally taking action to make sure an independent institution is handling doping issues.”

Wada has made it clear the spotlight is on Kenya. Whether it can prove sufficient steps are being taken to avoid censure, only time will tell.