Kip Keino: ban all Kenyan drug cheats for life

'We want to be honest, we don’t want to cheat. If people are using drugs they should be banned not for four years but it should be a life ban'

(Getty Images)

Two-time Olympic champion Kip Keino has called for lifetime bans for Kenyan drug cheats and warned that the next generation of athletes is in danger of being dragged into a world of doping.

Keino, the head of the National Olympic Committee Kenya, also said he felt ashamed about the cases of doping in the country, as well as allegations of corruption within Athletics Kenya, and called for a shake up of drugs testing to avoid a ban similar to that of Russia.

The 75-year-old, the 1500m Olympic champion at the 1968 Games and winner of the 3,000m steeplechase four years later, told The Independent: “We want to be honest, we don’t want to cheat. If people are using drugs they should be banned not for four years but it should be a life ban. The message is we don’t want you if you’re doing bad things.

“But the message is also that we need to give young athletes the belief in what we’re doing so they can avoid doping. We want to be honest to the youth of this country, of this world. They are our potential ambassadors for the future so we have to educate them against drug abuse.”

Athletics coach Paul Simbolei alleged at the weekend that officials were taking race winnings from athletes in exchange for covering up failed drugs tests. In addition, the leaked blood results from the IAAF apparently showed that 18 Olympic and world championship medals had been won by Kenyans with suspicious blood readings.

Only Russia, whose athletes were provisionally suspended from international competition on Friday, recorded higher readings, while Kenya currently has more than 30 athletes banned from the sport.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has been pushing the Kenyan Government to open a satellite anti-doping laboratory in the capital, Nairobi. Currently athletes’ samples are flown five hours to Doha in Qatar for testing, while the samples of other sportsmen and women from the east African country are sent to a lab in South Africa.

“We need to put our heads together and be able to use Wada properly and have one testing system for all,” added Keino.