Sports CS Ababu Namwamba fires warning rogue athletics coaches and agents

ATHLETICS Sports CS Ababu Namwamba fires warning rogue athletics coaches and agents

Abigael Wafula 15:52 - 12.11.2023

Sports CS Ababu Namwamba has promised to deal with rogue athletics coaches and agents like common criminals.

Kenya has long been in the spotlight as one of the countries with the highest doping cases and it remains in Category A of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules.

In order to ensure that the country is effective in fighting the menace, the government committed Ksh600 million to help in the fight against doping for the next five years.

In addition to that, Sports CS Ababu Namwamba has also fired warning shots at rogue coaches, trainers, and agents who play a huge role in the lives of athletes.

Speaking during a stakeholders and administrators sensitisation meeting at the Kipchoge Complex in Nandi County, Namwamba insisted they will take very serious action against coaches and agents who are aiding athletes to dope.

“We are coming for those coaches and agents…we shall also visit those training camps. If you are running a camp that has been turned into the classical spaces for doping, we are coming for you," he said. 

"We are coming and we shall address you face-to-face. We cannot be banning a person for eight years…in athletics when they ban you for eight years, they have ended your career.

"This is because sports is very age sensitive…this is a very sensitive undertaking. When you are banned for a long time like eight years, that simply means your career has ended.” 

He added that the people behind the menace will continue living their lives freely and will go searching for other victims.

Namwamba said for the longest time, rogue coaches and other perpetrators have gone unpunished, and it is high time they are also held accountable.

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“As we deal with the backend (the athlete), we shall also find the source and the pipeline and we shall deal with you like a common criminal that you are," he added.

"You will not destroy this thing that has placed Kenya on the world map and we shall not allow you to play around with that legacy."