A ‘Walk for Peace’ through the heart of Kenya’s Rift Valley was rudely interrupted in the early hours of this morning by the bellowing voice and pulsing veins of Dick Pound, former president and ongoing associate of the world anti-doping agency WADA.
The walk – which aimed to calm a spate of cattle rustling and other bovine-related violence across Kenya’s northern regions – was meant to cover approximately 836 kilometres, from the town of Lodwar on the border with Uganda all the way to the shores of Lake Bogoria. Scheduled to last twenty-two days in total, this was the walk’s penultimate morning.
But with the proverbial finishing line almost in sight, the surviving participants will now never get to experience the joys of their last lap nor lip from the lapping lake or hear the lulling splashing sounds of the site that was supposed to be their final destination.
As they woke to a typical breakfast of chia seeds and coconut water, Pound was on them like a rash, dressed in khakis and keen to express his point of view.
Kenyan athletics has been beset for more than a year by a string of doping scandals, causing WADA just last month to declare the country non-compliant, threatening the participation of its athletes in the upcoming Rio Olympics. The Kenyan government has promised new laws to tackle the systematic abuse of illicit supplements, but Pound is evidently in no mind to wait for time or answers.
As he emerged from one supply tent with a red frothy face and seeds all in his hair, he told bewildered reporters that some of the illustrious athletes who had agreed to take part in the walk might be able to provide him with materials or information. None of the athletes in question are suspected of supplying, administering, or ingesting drugs.
One such athlete, former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, declared himself profoundly upset by the morning’s events, stating ‘No prosperity with illegitimacy – we understand that. But what about peace?’.
