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Kenyan sports have in recent days witnessed shocking reports that do not augur well with the spirit of ‘Utu’ which advocates for fairness and togetherness.

In the past seven days, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) suspended the former Nairobi City Stars duo of Ezekiel Odera and Salim Abdallah for alleged match-fixing claims.

The match-fixing claims have been rampant in the Kenyan league, seriously denting the image of the sport locally and raises issues of unfairness and legitimacy. In March three people were arrested while attempting to manipulate City Stars’ game against Sofapaka.

The three – Russian Akhiad Kubiev, Ugandan Bernard Nabende and Kenyan Martin Munga were later released and fined Sh200,000 each.

The sixth fastest marathoner Titus Ekiru was also banned for 10 years for four charges of anti-doping violations by the Athletics Integrity Unity (AIU) last week on Monday.

Ekiru has two marathon wins to his name including victory in Milan in May 2021 in the exceptionally fast time of 2:02.57 seconds

The 31-year-old tested positive for triamcinolone acetonide, a glucocorticoid, after winning in Milan, “but was not immediately charged after the initial investigation appeared to validate his explanation that the result was due to legitimate medical treatment”.

The athlete tested positive for pethidine after winning in Abu Dhabi in November, 2021, and again claimed the outcome resulted from legitimate medical treatment. He has not raced since then.

Ekiru was provisionally suspended last month, “pending the outcome of both wide-ranging investigations which included crucial collaboration with the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) and other Kenyan authorities.

That led to the AIU rejecting Ekiru’s explanations, charging him with two doping charges and then asserting that the Kenyan has “cases to answer for tampering with the results-management processes by submitting falsified medical explanations and documentation to the AIU for both positive tests”.

Match fixing and doping threaten to taint all the major gains earned by Kenya in the world of sports over the years. It must stop and must stop now to save the image of the country and other sports personalities who do not cheat.

\It is very unfair to athletes who are running clean and still winning accolades, just for a section to try and use performance enhancing drugs and later taint their hard earned fame.

Good sportsmanship builds teamwork, character, and teaches respect, honor, discipline, kindness, inclusion, resilience, perseverance, and more.

(The writer is a Masters in Diplomacy Student at the University of New South Wales and also an enthusiastic Sports writer)