Kenyan government said the athletes who have defected to other countries but still live in Kenya will soon be deported to their adopted countries, local newspaper reported Wednesday.

According Kenya Times, Sports Minister Ochillo Ayacko said Tuesday that the government will no longer accommodate these athletes "who continue to enjoy the facilities available in Kenya and yet they have shifted their allegiance."

The minister said this while receiving a sponsorship from a local brewery towards an athletics meeting in Nairobi slated for next month.

Ayacko asked Athletics Kenya (AK) to furnish him with names of all those athletes who have since changed citizenship so that action can be taken.

"We will declare these athletes as persona non grata and cannot permit them to enjoy facilities available in the country while they compete against us at World championships," Kenya Times quoted Ayacko as saying.

He said once he has been furnished with the full list by AK, then he will hold a big press conference next week to tell the defectors their illegal stay in Kenya is over.

He said the laws of Kenya does not provide for dual citizenship and these athletes will soon be deported to the countries they have seen fit to belong.

According to a newly proposed rule at the weekend by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), athletes who change their nationalities cannot compete for their new countries until three years have elapsed after acquiring new citizenship.

At present athletes are banned from competing for another country until three years after they last represented their original country.

"This period may be reduced to 12 months with the agreement of the members concerned," IAAF said.

A lot of former Kenyan athletes, such as notably world steeplechase champion and record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen, now compete for Gulf countries after emigrating for economic reasons.

According the former rules, Shaheen, known as Stephen Cherono in Kenya, was granted Qatar citizenship in August 2003 and went on to win the world title in Paris in the same month.

The Kenyan list of athletes changing citizenship to the Gulf states has been growing. The switch has mostly been motivated by the search for money and better training facilities.

Some Kenyan athletes have changed their citizenships without AK's knowledge just because they have not competed for Kenya in the past.

AK Secretary General David Okeyo said the new rule will help the federation put checks and balance to the free flow of athletes to the Gulf states.

At the recent World Cross Country Championshipsin France, nearly all the top 10 in each category comprised of Kenyans representing Kenya plus others representing Qatar and Bahrain.

Source: Xinhua