The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a new investigative report on doping in Kenya, concluded that while the vice had become rampant, it was not systemic.
WADA director of intelligence and investigations Gunter Younger explained in a statement the difference between doping in Kenya and countries such as Russia which was exposed over a state-sponsored, organized doping scheme.
“The doping practices of Kenyan athletes are unsophisticated, opportunistic and uncoordinated, and there is no evidence of an institutionalized system.
“(Doping in Kenya) is different from other doping structures discovered elsewhere in the world and, as such, it requires a different approach,” he continued.
Kenyan athletes engaging in doping were said to lack adequate knowledge on its consequences or were willfully blind to them.
Investigators recommended greater control over doctors and "quasi-medical practitioners" believed to be the source of most banned substances.
The Head of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Brett Clothier disclosed that Kenyan athletes composed 22 percent of AIU's out-of-competition testing program.
“Kenya is a great and justly proud athletics nation, but it now has a serious doping problem,” he stated.
The report is the result of an investigation that lasted over two years.
31 Kenyan athletes banned from the sport for using banned substances were contacted for interviews but only seven came.
None of them, however, admitted to using the substances despite having been found guilty at doping hearings.
