Kenyan defectors urged to study politics

NAIROBI, Jan 19 (Reuters) Politically naive Kenyan runners who defect to Gulf states for money risk encountering serious problems, observers say.

More than 40 Kenyan athletes, many unable to win selection in their country where competition is high, have gone to other countries in search of better pay, often defecting to rich Gulf states with better training facilities.

Last week, however, road racer Leonard Mucheru was deported from his adopted country, Bahrain, after participating in a marathon race in Israel which has no diplomatic ties with the Gulf state.

Many of those making the move abroad were too young to grasp political issues outside Kenya, said Colm O'Connell, a long-time coach in the east African country.

''They should be taken through thorough orientation to know the legal, social and political issues involved in their adopted environments,'' O'Connell, an Irish lay preacher who coaches many top-class athletes, told Reuters.

His views were supported by three-times world 3,000m steeplechase champion, Moses Kiptanui.

''These runners just defect for the money, yet their little education does not make them understand the world in which they are running,'' Kiptanui said.

Mucheru, renamed Mushir Salem Jawher, had his citizenship revoked by Bahrain last week after he ran in and won the Tiberias Marathon in Israel, becoming the first athlete from Bahrain to run in Israel.

CAREFUL STUDY Bahrain Athletics Association officials reacted with anger, saying they were shocked that a citizen of their country would take part in a sporting event in Israel.

Mucheru said he had been unaware that he was the first Bahrain athlete to compete in Israel.

Most Arab countries ban their athletes from taking part in sports events in Israel.

Kenya's sports minister Maina Kamanda said Mucheru had shamed his native country, adding that the case showed that defecting athletes needed to study their new contracts carefully.

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