Olympics Rio 2016: Kenya's deputy president vows to take action against coach who was sent home

Stephen Soi said sprint coach John Anzrah committed violations by impersonating an athlete, producing a urine sample and signing documents in the name of an athlete.

"The problem with John Anzrah is he, without authority, took possession of an identity card of an athlete on the list of WADA for an out of competition dope testing.

"He went to the dining hall using it purporting to be Ferguson Rotich and, unfortunately, he was caught and taken to doping control centre where he not only produced samples but also signed documents.

"These are crimes against our country because he impersonated an athlete, went ahead to produce samples and had documents signed as Ferguson," said Soi, who is a senior police officer attached to Kenya's elite para-military General Service Unit in Rio.

The International Olympic Committee is also investigating the matter and has set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the incident.

Anzrah said he had only one thing on his mind when doping testers came calling at the Rio Olympics athletes' village - a decent, free meal.

Instead of a fry-up, however, he found himself impersonating 800 metres runner Ferguson Rotich and being told to pee in a cup before drugs testers finally discovered the 52-year-old could not possibly be a world class athlete, ready for the biggest race of his life.

"On Wednesday, Ferguson Rotich gave me his card to use for breakfast," Anzrah told a throng of reporters upon landing at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Rio on Friday.

"If I had an accreditation card, this would not have occurred. I did not steal the card, so I could not have impersonated anybody."

The former runner said hunger had led him and other coaches to using the athletes' accreditation to enter the off-limits athletes' village where the dining hall is a feast for the senses with a vast variety of foods on offer, from Asian to Italian and Brazilian.

"We were operating in Rio like beggars, cooking for ourselves in a private house, but our athletes always helped us get food. We were only being given ordinary one-day passes. It was a shame," he said.

He had just flown back from Rio after being expelled from the team and he could now face possible criminal charges at home.

Anzrah said it was pure coincidence that the testers came calling when he was about to have breakfast.

"I was confronted by three anti-doping guys, who demanded to know my nationality. They checked their list and confirmed Ferguson was due for random testing."

"I told them I was not Rotich, but they would hear none of it. They led me into a room, demanded my urine sample but I declined, asking my colleague to alert Ferguson. He came with his passport to prove the card I used was his. I was then released."

Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K), said they will not tolerate such behaviour, adding that NOC-K did not facilitate Anzrah's travel to Rio and do not know how he got there.

A senior Athletics Kenya (AK) official later claimed that Anzrah used Rotich's accreditation pass to obtain meals, only to come across a dope-testing official who was looking for Rotich for an out-competition dope test. Fearing he would be exposed, the coach played along, the AK official said.

Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto also warned athletes and administrators that serious consequences await anyone involved in doping.

"One sports administrator has been sent back home and is now in incarceration. We have made sure that every law to protect the status of our country is applied," Ruto told Kenyan media in Rio.

"Anybody found on the wrong side of the law here will face the full force of the law. That must be understood clearly by all sports administrators, sportsmen and every other person in between," said Ruto.

Last week, Kenya sent their track and field manager Michael Rotich home from the Games following allegations that he requested money to let undercover journalists, posing as athlete representatives, know when drugs testers would come calling.

Rotich denied the accusations but was arrested on his return to Nairobi, where a judge ordered the police to hold him for four weeks during the doping probe.

The east African nation boasts some of the world's best middle and distance runners, but more than 40 Kenyans have failed drug tests since 2012 and its athletics federation has been mired in corruption scandals linked to doping.

The situation led World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to threaten to bar Kenya from Rio before Parliament moved to fast-track legislation that criminalised doping in June.