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"content": "country, keep them away completely and never allow them to interact with our athletes in whatever way or whatsoever manner that one can think of. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki to separate Clause 42(6) and create two levels of offences and punishment. In the case of an athlete who is found to have committed an offence, and there is a strong mitigating factor that such a young person did not know that he or she was taking was a banned substance, we cannot impose a fine of Kshs1 million on them or send them to jail for one year. We need to rehabilitate them. I know there is a therapeutic committee, but we need to play more towards rehabilitation than punishment, unless there are serious circumstances that the athlete went out of their way to take drugs. After separating athletes, we should then deal with the offenders who introduce the drugs, for example, the people who destroyed the career of a young girl called Ms. Pamela Jelimo, the first Kenyan girl after Mr. Moses Kiptanui, to win the Grand Prix Circuit of US$1 million. When she came back, a young police constable who married her introduced her to all manner of agents and within one year, the US$1 million was gone. In another year, she was taken to run when it was clear that she was not fit to do so. This kind of misuse of our athletes is what we must be punishing. I want to encourage Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki to deal with that firmly. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me finish by saying the following general things. One, athletes have brought great fame to this country. In 1964, the first Kenyan athlete at the Olympics won a medal and Kenya went on the world map. In 1968, Mr. Naftali Temu, Mr. Kipchoge Keino, Mr. Amos Biwott and others brought even more fame. In 1972 when Mr. Robert Ouko, Mr. Ezekiah Nyamau, Mr. Amos Biwott and Mr. Julius Sang beat the Americans in Munich, it was a great event. I remember Mr. John Ngugi who went to the Seoul Olympics. When he came back, he said that since he did not have a finishing kick, he made sure that he was running 100 metres ahead of the pack, so that even those who would come to the final lap, however hard they ran would not catch up. He brought two gold medals to Kenya. However, we know he fell sick and that has not been provided for here. He was practicing in Nyahururu when a man from Switzerland came to him without introducing himself or through the local agent and said that he wanted to test him. Mr. Ngugi asked why he wanted to test him, yet he did not even know him. He went ahead and wrote a report that Mr. Ngugi had refused to be tested and must be banned. Mr. Ngugi was banned and his career plummeted there and then, for such a promising athlete. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need a provision that will provide that those who carry out random tests must have a proper introduction from the athletics body that manages athletes, so that the athletes can know whether or not they are conmen, quacks or terrorists. Finally, I want to encourage this House which is the custodian of counties and county governments, that anybody and everybody can be a good athlete. When you hear of Lionel Messi earning an income of US$350,000 a week or Yaya Toure earning £250,000 a week, sometimes, you wonder whether you are in the wrong business."
}