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Fight doping aggressively

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By  Editorial

The rising cases of doping among Kenya’s top elite athletes should be a major concern to the development of sports in the country, especially athletics.

The provisional suspension of the national 400 metres record holder, Mercy Oketch, on Thursday brought to 38 the number of Kenyans, who have been suspended in athletics alone this year by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya.

Oketch’s ban for the use of Trimetazidine and Furosemide, comes a fortnight after reigning World and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, Peres Jepchirchir, was suspended for Erythropoietin (Epo) and three months after Commonwealth race walk silver medallist, Stephen Ndangiri, was also flagged down for Epo.

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ADAK, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and Athletics Kenya, have made great strides in trying to combat the rising cases of doping in the country through advanced testing and education.

More athletes and stakeholders are more informed on matters of doping since the war on doping was scaled up when the government moved to allocate Sh 690 million annually to Athletics Integrity (AIU) and ADAK activities in 2023.

AIU might have cautioned that the cases will keep on rising with advanced testing, but there should be a new approach to combat the menace by turning the heat on those who supply and administer the banned substances through surveillance and intelligence. Seminars and education only won't work.

Most of these drugs like Epo are quite expensive and can’t be purchased or administered over the counter.

The culture of silence shouldn’t be the case now since we believe the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and WADA’s Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network (GAIIN), have the capacity to break the cycle.

With the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in process, Parliament and stakeholders should consider more punitive measures since mere bans of up to fours years or more, have not yielded good results.

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