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JOHANNESBURG. – The global doping watchdog said yesterday it has not seen Kenya follow up on assurances to probe doping allegations, a day after Nairobi set up such a task force. “We’ve been asking them to have an independent inquiry . . . we’ve been asking them to do that for 18 months,” said the World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey.

“I just simply haven’t seen that,” he told journalists at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg.
Fahey was unaware of a 12-member task force Kenya named on Monday to investigate a media report that the blood-boosting drug EPO and other doping products were readily available to local athletes.

Kenyan authorities earlier undertook to probe the reports in meetings with Fahey, he said.
“Unfortunately despite assurances that investigation has not taken place,” he said, suggesting that WADA might launch its own probe under new doping rules due for ratification this week.

The revised World Anti-Doping Code will give the body wider powers, whereas currently it can only police countries’ compliance.
Since January 2012, increased doping tests have netted 17 Kenyan cheats, though none of them big-name record breakers.

The allegations have cast a shadow over Kenya, famed for its record-breaking runners who hold world records from the 800m through to the marathon and where running is a major source of national pride. – AFP.