Why athlete MP Wesley Korir walked out on Sports PS
Cheregany Member of Parliament and 2012 Boston Marathon champion Wesley Korir on Tuesday walked out of a meeting with Sports Principal Secretary Richard Ekai over what he termed as the government’s “non-commitment” in fighting doping in the country.
Mr Korir was disappointed after the government failed to allocate a single cent to fight the menace in its budget for the 2015 -2016 financial year.
The legislature took to Twitter to express his frustrations posting a photo of the Ministry’s proposed budget.
According to the proposed budget, anti-doping activities require Sh25 Million but has not been allocated a single cent as opposed to other activities like registration of sports organisations, licensing of professional sports bodies and refurbishment of sports registry offices have all been allocated huge lumps of money.
The 32-year-old first time MP tweeted:
“I am very disappointed just walked out of a meeting with PS Sports because of their non commitment to fighting this vice in our country. The country has in the past six months made headlines for the wrong reasons after several athletes tested positive for banned substances. This is how Kenya is committed to fighting doping in this country.”
Rita Jeptoo, a three-time winner of the Boston marathon and twice winner of the Chicago race, failed a drugs test late last year and was banned for two years by Athletics Kenya in January. AK also suspended two sports agencies depending a probe over the same issue.
Fredrico Rosa representing Rosa & Associati, one of the suspended agencies has been representing Kenyan athletes since 1996.
Some of his clients are Jeptoo, Jemima Sumgong, Jeptoo’s training partner, who in 2012 failed a drug test for prednisolone (that was later reversed) and formerly served as the agent for Mathew Kisorio who tested positive for steroids in 2012.
AK accused the camps of being behind the rise in doping cases in the country, which has seen close to 40 long distance runners testing positive to banned substances over the past three years.