World anti-doping chief heads to Kenya

A team from the World Anti-Doping Agency led by its director general David Howman will visit Kenya next week to inspect the implementation of anti-doping policies, Kenyan officials said Thursday.

Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya said Howman will lead a two day inspection of Kenya's long-promised measures to fight doping, following claims that the east African nation known had failed to take any credible action.

"The team will meet the newly-established Anti-Doping Association of Kenya and the lawyers appointed by the IAAF Ethics Commission to probe alleged corruption and cover-up of doping offences in Athletics Kenya," said Kipchoge, on returning from an IOC board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"WADA is concerned that Kenya has not done much, and yet we have 43 athletes who have been suspended for drug-related offences since 2012," said Kipchoge.

"The matter has been complicated because the athletes themselves are not saying who is administering these drugs," he complained.

Kenya has been under scrutiny amid allegations of widespread doping in world athletics, which led to the suspension of senior Athletics Kenya officials Isaiah Kiplagat, David Okeyo and Joseph Kinyua over suspicions they had siphoned off sponsorship money from Nike and subverted anti-doping controls, charges they all deny.

Their suspension was another blow to global track and field, with the IAAF ethics commission suspending them in the "interests of the integrity of the sport".

Lawyer Sharad Rao was appointed earlier this month to investigated the corruption allegations.

"We hope action will be taken and criminal proceedings will be instituted against those behind these cases once the findings from the Sharad Rao-led probe are revealed," said Kipchoge.