KENYA RUGBY UNION MEDIA RELEASE: Tuesday 21 October 2014 THE Kenya Government has been challenged to state whether they had confidence in the qualification and integrity of members of a committee which has alleged that Kenyan sportsmen, among them national rugby team players, used illegal food supplements. The Kenya Rugby Union [KRU] Chairman Mwangi Muthee said his organization was shocked to find press reports even alluding to “that, in the first place, it is illegal to use nutritional supplements.” He said only one player had failed a doping test and that was way back in 2005. He also added that the sevens players, who play up to nine months in a year around the world, are tested by standards set by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Rugby Board [IRB] and none had failed since 2005. Muthee, said on Tuesday morning, there was no WADA approved Anti-Doping Agency in Kenya and a recent local “Anti-Doping Taskforce” committee assembled had “cobbled together fallacious information from familiar players of local sports politics wishing to score points for their own agenda.” Muthee who is currently out of the country, sent a brief message to the Government of Kenyas Minister of Sports and Culture, Dr Hassan Wario on Tuesday saying: This is shoddy and misinformed work by Moni Wekesa [the committee’s chairman]. Our game is unfairly tarnished beyond repair and some Kenyans are now liable to litigation because of the press publication of ‘absolute rubbish and untruth’. This exercise was a search for cheap publicity which it has achieved.” When the Wekesa committee report was handed to Wario, its coverage on the online site of a local radio, Capital FM, sensationally headlined that current Kenya Sevens coach, Paul Treu, a former accolade winner with South Africa Sevens and his predecessor as Kenya Sevens coach Mike Friday, a former England coach now heading USA Sevens, had “put Kenya Sevens players on steroids”. Friday’s instant retort to the Capital FM Sports was: “You [Capital FM Sports] will need very good lawyers if you dont publicly retract and apologize for these lies.” Wary of allegations and mention of people in the Wekesa report that could attract libel action, some mainstream publications in Kenya, including the largest circulation newspaper the “Nation”, avoided altogether, in their edition on October 18, coverage of the handing over of the report to the Minister the previous day. “The Saturday Standard,” avoided sensational headlines and also apparently edited alarming allegations and references to some individuals. While the “Standard” coverage almost stuck to the narrative of the Wekesa report, the Capital FM Sports version introduced many extraneous statements, facts and interpretation hardly consistent with contents of the booklet handed to the Minister. The KRU, while supporting the establishment of a Kenyan Anti-Doping Agency which the Government says will be enacted with proper legislation by January 1, 2016, said they strongly questioned “the ethical foundation of the Wekesa committee war on doping. “Its so-called findings consist of largely unsubstantiated assumptions, dubious claims and sources within sports associations whose integrity can be challenged,” the KRU chairman said. The “Standard” also highlighted the fact that Athletics Kenya [AK] who together with Football Kenya Federation [FKF] were also focus of the Wekesa report, though invited to the handing over ceremony “were conspicuous by the absence.” But when the Wekesa committee was formed in November last year, AK instantly questioned its qualifications and flatly refused to co-operate. When the Wekesa committee attempted to interview athletes at a convention in the Kenyan city of Eldoret in late November, AK chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat ordered that no athlete should submit to Wekesa’s questioning He told the athletes: “Nobody should come here to interview you. They should find their own day to do that. They should not depend on our organisation and pretend to be working.” Kiplagat said Kenyan athletes had suffered from their image being tainted by allegations of banned drug use by people with ill motives. He said Kenyan athletes submitted to the credible anti-doping regime of WADA and routinely accepted the rulings of the world body. He added that AK did not have the capacity for local testing and called upon the Government to establish a qualified anti-doping agency, preferably approved by WADA. Until then, Kiplagat’s stand was that AK would oppose ad hoc groups that alleged widespread drug abuse existed among athletes. “These accusations should come to a stop,” he said adding: “Over 650 athletes were tested last year [2013] and only 17 out of those… largely lesser knowns, failed tests. Our top cream athletes are fine. “Just leave Kenyan athletes alone and in peace, “Kiplagat had told the Wekesa committee. Muthee said it would take the Minister’s “quick steps to repair, even rudimentary, the terrible damage caused by careless statements and wild allegations made by the Wekesa report.” He said: “There are just questions and questions that Wekesa needs to answer,” the KRU chairman said attaching the following statement to his address to the Minister: ABOUT THE WEKESA COMMITTTEE MEMBERS The Public needs to know:- 1. The members by name and professions, their background, training and qualifications to handle the topic ‘anti-doping’ 2. Are they qualified to interpret the trends of evolving modern sport? 3. Are they simply mesmerized that the modern Kenya rugby athlete differs enormously from the past with regard to his/her access to care, supervision, and a high quality medical and technological environment FOOD SUPPLEMENTS 1. Do the Wekesa committee members, as they caused to be reported in media, believe that use of food supplements is illegal; that it is banned by WADA or the IRB? 2. Is the Wekesa committee aware that all top rugby players, and indeed athletes from other disciplines in the world use nutrition supplements so long as they do not contain substances banned by WADA? 3. Mike Friday [former England, now USA coach] introduced “USN” nutrition supplements; are they illegal? None of his Kenya Sevens players failed anti-doping tests 4. Jerome Paarwater (South African), Kenya XVs head coach introduced “Evox” nutrition supplements, products of and widely used in South Africa. Kenya players were tested under IRB regulations during the 2015 Rugby World Cup Africa qualifications in Madagascar. No player failed 5. Paul Treu (SA) current Kenya Sevens Performance Director and Head Coach introduced the “Future Life” meal replacement food products of South Africa. Wekesa committee says they are aware 24 players were tested out of competition in 2013 and 12 during competition and that the tests were done in collaboration with IRB. Were there any positive tests? The “USN”, “Evox” and “Future Life” food supplements are well known food supplements in the world used by sports people. The manufacturers label the nutritional and pharmacological contents of these products. Sports people will not use any of their products that contain substances banned by WADA. In any case, if they did, they would fail drug tests in numerous tests carried out systematically round the world off-season and during competition. WEKESA COMMITTEE VS KENYA SEVENS RUGBY COACHING STAFF Paul Treu and strength and body conditioning coach, Graham Bentz, are highly qualified university educated experts in modern sports skills, nutrition, bio-kinetics, sports science and sports medicine, qualifications they use to manage the Kenya international rugby players. Any attempt to investigate the professional conduct of these two individuals for instance, must, surely be conducted by equivalent or higher authorities on the subject, rather than some characters relying on myth, hearsay and conspiracy theory. Mike Friday, earlier for England, Kenya and now USA, Paul Treu and Graham Bentz, coaches of many years for South Africa and now Kenya, have operated under the regulations of the IRB and it would first and foremost, be from those circles that focus would come from if they were doing anything untoward regarding nutrition supplements. Indeed, KRU and most rugby followers in Kenya would be of that opinion rather than place an iota of credibility to an indeterminate “Anti-doping Taskforce” WEKESA ON TESTING FOOD SUPPLEMENTS HANDED THEM BY KRU 1. Committee to tell public what exactly they were looking for in the food products freely handed to them by KRU 2.What did they find? Media reports say they found the products to be laced with steroids. Ordinary day-to-day food we consume daily contains steroids, which exact steroids were found? Were they synthetic or natural? Were they on the WADA banned list? 3.What standards of testing were used? 4. Who did the analysis? At what laboratories? 5. Which doctors were involved? 6. Which technicians did the tests? 7. Who were the witnesses? 8. When the KRU handed the food supplement products, who took custody, who were the witnesses, what was the security to guard against tampering? Above all, no Kenyan player tested positive for any banned substance during the period these food supplements were in use. The KRU chairman said the country’s resources both financially and in personnel were meager and that “the mischief of detractors is to deviate us from focus on development. We can hardly afford and the onus is on those making allegations that we have violated anti-doping rules to prove that. “When WADA announces their verdict after professionally handled investigations and tests of “A” and “B” samples on athletes, everyone lives with the decision. “The procedure here [with the Wekesa Committee] is to fill everyone with consternation.” Mwangi Muthee, Chairman, Kenya Rugby Union
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 12:30:02 +0000
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