Kenya has set up an anti-doping centre in the north-western town of Eldoret, the home of the country’s distance running training camp.
The Kenyan government has been urged by the World Anti-doping Agency’s athlete committee to set up an independent inquiry into the doping allegations that have surrounded the country’s runners in recent months.
Three-time 3,000m steeplechase world champion Moses Kiptanui hadpreviously claimed doping was rife in Kenya.
“Kenya’s credibility is being doubted,” said AK president Isaiah Kiplagat.
The IAAF is undertaking a feasibility study towards establishing a blood-testing centre either in Nairobi or in Eldoret, the highlands’ heartland of Kenyan distance running.
Thirteen Kenyan runners returned positive tests between January 2012 and January this year. These results have been accompanied by allegations of widespread doping at high-altitude training camps. A first sign that the number of cases is causing alarm in Kenya came earlier this year when the government began an investigation, described as “secretive” and not enough for Wada’s athlete committee, which includes the British cyclist David Millar and Frankie Fredericks, the former Olympic sprinter. The committee believes only an independent inquiry can address the issue adequately.
Earlier this week, Wada finally revoked testing accreditation for a laboratory in Tunis, meaning that Johannesburg hosts the only lab in Africa where samples can currently be processed.