Former athlete and coach jailed for portraying Kenya as a doping haven
A court set up at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has sentenced a retired athlete and coach in Kenya to jail after both persons fabricated doping allegations against the country’s top athletes.
The retired athlete, Elias Kiptum Maindi was sentenced to one and a half years while Paul Kibet Simbolei was sentenced to a year in jail.
The accused persons were sentenced for fabricating documents that suggest that doping activities were being promoted by several state agencies in the country and sharing the information with foreign media.
According to The Nation, the allegations were intended to have Kenyan athletes including multiple world champions Vivian Cheruiyot, Hellen Obiri, Eunice Jepkoech Sum, Juan Pedro, Amos Kipruto, Daniel Simiu Ebenyo, and Beatrice Chepkoech suspended from participating in the Olympic Games and to tarnish the country’s image in the athletics world.
Kiptum is also said to have written a letter addressed to an athlete Joyce Chepkirui’s manager Gianni Demadonna informing him that Chepkurui had tested positive for Norandrosterone, a substance prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Chepkirui previously participated in 42-kilometre marathons in New York and Boston and has since been banned over the fabricated doping allegations against her.
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Maindi and Simbolei are said to have committed the said offences between September 16, 2019, and April 18, 2020.
