Address doping, AK tells Dr Wario

Athletics kenya President Jack Tuwei addressing press conference on the various competition in 2016 at Riadha House on Jan 28, 2016.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO/STANDARD]

Athletics chiefs took on the Sports Cabinet Secretary, Hassan Wario, in a bare-knuckled response to the latter’s recent remarks about the administration of the sport.

Athletics Kenya President, Lt Gen (rtd) Jack Tuwei, urged the CS to address the rising doping cases by facilitating legislation to proscribe the scourge that has tainted Kenyan athletics achievements in recent times.

“We have read with disappointment allegations by the Sports Cabinet Secretary Dr Hassan Wario that Kenyans have lost faith in Athletics Kenya due to corruption and doping scandals,” said the strongly-worded statement.

“Wario has gone ahead to claim that long-serving leaders and archaic structures at the federation were behind the doping crisis that is threatening the country’s participation in the international competition.

“While we agree that some of our officials have been mentioned in the scandals and are currently serving suspension; we would like to state that the CS’s statement is not only irresponsible but also quite unfortunate especially coming from the man who is supposed to be spearheading the fight against doping,” they said.

“We know the real issue at the moment is the draft from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya, which doesn’t meet the threshold of the World Anti-Doping Association.

“It beats logic when the CS states that Kenyans have lost faith in AK yet we continue to hold crowd pulling events around the country.

“In any case, AK is the most active federation in the country to-date and we are currently preparing three teams for international assignments in the next one month,” they said.