Just what is it that the country isn’t doing in its war against doping?
Is the situation so desperate that the government, Athletics Kenya and other anti-doping machinery are losing the battle?
These are the questions being asked following the shocking news that former world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang was suspended on Friday for breaching two anti-doping rules.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the anti-doping arm of world athletics governing body World Athletics, confirmed that they had provisionally suspended Kipsang for not updating them on his whereabouts as well as tampering with doping tests.
This is particularly shocking and embarrassing, considering that Kipsang broke the world marathon record and won the World Marathon Majors and the 2012 London Olympics bronze medal.
Surprisingly, Kenya has anti-doping laws but is against criminalising doping.
This also happened as AK, the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (Adak), World Doping Agency (Wada) and AIU have intensified the anti-doping campaigns in the country, with a testing laboratory being put up to hasten the process.
Two of those campaigns were the highly successful 2018 and 2019 AK conferences that all the top elite athletes, including Kipsang, attended.
That more than 40 Kenyan athletes have been reprimanded for violating anti-doping rules over the past year clearly shows the systems are working and the cheats are being nabbed.
However, Kenyan athletes need to be serious with the regulations by religiously clocking their whereabouts on the ADAMS system and strictly observing the Wada Code. The elite athletes know them.
AK, Adak and National Olympic Committee of Kenya should ensure all athletes in the pool are compliant, adhere to discipline and run clean, considering that this is an Olympics year.
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