WADA 'extremely troubled' by Kenyan bribery claims

Athletes Joy Sakari and Francisca Koki Manunga told the Associated Press that federation CEO Isaac Mwangi asked each for $24,000 to reduce the four-year bans they were given after testing positive at last year's world championships in Beijing.





Mwangi dismissed the claims as a "fabrication".

"WADA is most disturbed by these reports regarding extortion and bribery at the national level of sport," WADA Director General David Howman said in a statement.

He said they were "eerily similar sounding" to what had been learnt through a recent independent commission investigation into widespread doping in international athletics.

The report found that a clique run by former IAAF president Lamine Diack covered up organised doping and blackmailed athletes while senior officials looked the other way.

Diack is under formal investigation in France on suspicion of corruption and money-laundering linked to the concealment of positive drug tests in concert with Russian officials.

"WADA will of course require more detailed information on these allegations from those concerned so that we can determine if this is a matter for us to investigate or for the (IAAF) ethics commission as part of its own enquiries," Howman said of the latest claims.

"The allegations we have heard this week also illustrate the importance of having a robust, independent national anti-doping organisation fully functional in Kenya at the earliest opportunity," he added.





(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Nick Mulvenney)


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world