Kenya is finalizing plans to criminalize doping after two of the country’s athletes; Koki Manunga and Joyce Zakary became the IAAF World Athletics Championships’ first athletes to fail drugs tests.
The Kenyan duo were given provisional suspensions from participating in 400m during this years edition which ended a week ago and now the country’s Deputy President William Ruto has promised new regulations criminalizing doping.
Ruto was welcoming the team back home after they topped the medals table for the first time since the championships started in 1983, taking seven golds, six silvers and three bronze medals.
“At the executive level, we have been seized with this matter of doping. As a government this is a matter we are taking very seriously,” Ruto told reporters.
“We will be discussing this matter in the cabinet shortly. We want to put into place measures to elevate the (Kenyan) anti-doping agency and give it a legal framework so that it is backed by law to make it an offence,” he said.
Zakary had set a national record of 50.71secs in her heat but did not show up for her semi-final the following day during the championships in Beijing, China. Manuga did not participate.
The duo now joined fellow Kenyan marathon star Rita Jeptoo who was also banned for two years after being caught doping with the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO, the same drug that was part of the cocktail used by Tour de France cheat Lance Armstrong.
