ADAK warns of more doping cases amidst ramped up testing measures

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), the body mandated to protect athletes’ fundamental rights to participate in doping-free sports, has notified the public to expect more doping cases in the coming future owing to increased testing measures being put in place to tame the menace.

Kenya, a dominant force in the athletics scene, has hit the headlines in recent months over the spiraling doping cases that have threatened to tarnish the long-standing reputation the country has built over the years.

Speaking in Mombasa during an anti-doping workshop organized for sports journalists in the country, Dr. Martin Yauma, head of Education and Research at ADAK, revealed the reason why the numbers are likely to even go higher than what is currently being witnessed.

“Do not be alarmed when the number rises because all of government is now coming up together to fight the menace. We are all advocating for clean sport in our country,” he said.

Kenya, who remain in the ‘Category A’ national federations that also include Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, and Ukraine, have been teetering on the extreme borders of the vice with a potential sanction from World Athletics even mooted towards the end of last year.

However, that was avoided after the government pledged its funding of USD 5 million (Kes 707,250,000) per year to combat the menace.

Since 216 to date, 192 Kenyan athletes have been sanctioned with 169 cases prosecuted and concluded.

So far, 7598 athletes have been tested since 2016 with samples being urine, blood, ABP, blood passport, and blood serum.

In terms of education, ADAK has had 529 programmes with 119,400 targeted people having been reached so far.

This year alone, already 25 athletes had been sanctioned by June and more are likely to be revealed in the remaining months before the year ends.

“As a country we want Team Kenya to always run clean and all other sports to be clean. We are going to do our best to create awareness and make sure the message reaches every athlete and the media is critical in passing the message,” ADAK CEO Sarah Shibutse said.

To fight the menace, veteran journalist Elias Makori, who is the Nation Media’s Group Lead Editor, Sport and Integration Projects, encouraged other journalists to do more research on the biting anti-doping topic in order to report from an informed point of view.

“This is a fight that we need as journalists to be on the forefront of to make sure that the sport we are reporting on is fair and clean across the country. We need to do more research and empower ourselves with information so that we can report facts which will help eradicate the doping menace,” he said.

Engin Firat coy on Harambee Stars' World Cup chances