Doping: Kenya still in ICU, needs more State funding

The Athletics Integrity Unit and Athletics Kenya agree that violation of anti-doping rules has reached unprecedented levels in Kenya.

And they both want the government to commit more resources in the short and long term to fight the vice.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on NTV’s increasingly popular Monday night sports show SportOn!, top Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) and Athletics Kenya (AK) officials spoke candidly about growing cases of doping in Kenya.

But the head of the AIU Brett Clothier, ADAK’s legal chief Bildad Rogoncho and Athletics Kenya executive committee member Barnabas Korir noted that, fortunately, such doping isn’t systematic or state sanctioned was been the case in Russia that saw the Russian Athletics Federation suspended by World Athletics in 2015 due to systematic doping violations.

“There’s a lot of doping in Kenya and it’s a very serious issue,” Clothier, an Australian national who heads the independent AIU, said during the show hosted by veteran sports journalists Bernard Ndong and James Wokabi.

“We and our partners are doing the very best (to fight the doping) and there’s a lot of work to be done, and, quite frankly, the job needs to be revved up in Kenya,” he added via Zoom from AIU’s Monaco headquarters.

“You have a great anti-doping agency and we work very well with them, but, frankly, they need more resources to fight this peril and this (increased funding) is the next level of this fight.”

Doping cases have sharply risen in Kenya with almost 30 athletes sanctioned this year alone for flouting anti-doping rules.

Traditionally, athletes’ in and out of competition blood and urine samples are shipped to Qatar for analysis, but ADAK now want the government to finance the setting up of fully accredited laboratories in Kenya to cut down the cost of testing.

Government support

Rogoncho told SportOn! that ADAK currently test approximately 1,500 samples annually but require government support to increase the number to 3,000 which would, in turn, trigger the accreditation of a Kenyan testing laboratory by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Clothier noted that the AIU had stepped up surveillance of Kenya athletes and have been keen to monitor unexplained spikes in performance that would suggest unnatural interventions.

He noted that the dedicated focus on Kenya was due to the huge pool of elite athletes the country produces, especially in road races, compared to other countries.

“Kenya is in the right direction concerning eradication of doping and the menace is not centralised in Kenya compared to Russia where authorities were covering up. Kenya is helping us to uncover those who are doing it (doping). Kenya is doing well but there is need for more support in terms of funding to fight the menace,” Clothier noted.

Kenya is classified in Category ‘A’ by WADA, the highest in terms of doping prevalence.

Speaking during the show, Korir revealed that there are cartels “who have pitched camp in various training camps and have been supplying drugs to innocent athletes” which has seen number of banned athletes rise sharply.