Shape up or ship out, Wario tells sports federation bosses
Sports Cabinet Secretary Dr Hassan Wario has told Athletics Kenya top brass to resign over the increasing doping scandals in the country.
At the same time, he urged sponsors to review their partnerships with corrupt federations while also putting Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) on notice alongside registrar of Sports Federation for slow work.
Terming Rita Jeptoo’s doping case as disgraceful, Wario said there was no glamour in cheating and wondered why the top AK officials are still in office.
Wario blamed AK for failure to contain the doping menace by shielding rogue managers and agents, who are involved in doping.
“I was in Boston as we cheered Jeptoo to victory but I was gutted when I heard the news that she had failed a doping test,” Wario said.
“Jeptoo have now joined the other side of disgraced athletes such as Marion Jones, and they belong to the hall of shame and not hall of fame.”
Wario, who was speaking during the 2014 Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) Gala on Friday evening said:
“We must come out strongly as Kenyans and disassociate ourselves from people who want to spoil our sport by doping. Someone must take the blame since when all this was happening AK was quiet and not talking about it.”
END PARTNERSHIP
Wario said AK refused to cooperate when its officials were summoned by the Anti-Doping Task Force that was constituted by the government and headed by Moni Wekesa.
“AK has been silent while their walls are collapsing. We don’t register managers and agents, its AK that gives us guidance and we now have two factions there and it’s now a whole comedy of errors,” said Wario.
“There is no meaningful change that can be done in doping if AK is divided. “I’m giving them a very short time to put their houses in order for us to move forward.”
Wario noted that affairs at FKF have been a one man affair.
“Our patience is overdue and we are going to sort you out,” said Wario.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore warned that they will end their partnership with federations that don’t adhere to ethical practices.
“Good partnership is more than winning gold. It’s about playing within the rules. Sportsmen act ethically by demonstrating fairness, integrity, respect and responsibility. We shall end partnership with federations that are not 100 per cent ethical,” said Collymore.