Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has announced his commitment to fight doping in the country.
“As a country, we have declared total war on doping. This is because doping threatens that proud Kenyan heritage and the pedigree of Kenya as a nation that competes and wins clean,” he stated.
“From the days of Wilson Kiprugut Arap Chuma through to Kipchoge Keino and great girls like Catherine Ndereba, we have set a record of a country that runs and competes clean,” Ababu said.
Ababu was speaking during the homecoming of the newly crowned world marathon record holder, Kelvin Kiptum at a Nairobi Hotel.
Kenya has been marred with cases of doping among athletes in the past with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) putting Kenya among the countries on its watch list.
In 2018, a Wada report titled ‘Doping in Kenya’ found 138 Kenyan athletes had tested positive for prohibited substances between 2004 and 2018.
Ababu concluded by saying that athletics had become a high-stakes sport and there was a need to have constant surveillance on the athletes to ensure they abide by the rules set out by Wada.
“Athletics has become such a high-stakes game that we have to deal with the monster of doping every single day,” Ababu concluded.