© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated
Kenya’s war against doping has suffered a serious blow.
The once mighty athletics nation is now at risk of being banned from international competition. Due to massive budget cuts that have halted all testing, they are in potential trouble. The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) announced on Tuesday that the budget has been slashed.
ADAK has had its budget diminished to 10 per cent of where it previously was.
ADAK chairman Daniel Makdwallo said that “the agency cannot run its operations. The organization has been given 20 million shillings (155,000 USD). This is down from the 2.23 million USD it received in the previous fiscal year.
Grave concerns on doping –https://t.co/XeBDlBtAXK pic.twitter.com/i7UDpqQbSt
— Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (@ADAKKENYA) September 18, 2024
“We are at risk of not being able to host or send any of our sportsmen for international competitions because the agency cannot carry out its regular testing activities both in competition and out of competition,” the chairman told journalists in Nairobi.
The budget cuts are blamed on the rejection of the 2024 Finance Bill that outlined government spending for the 2024/2025 fiscal year in Kenya.
The ADAK chief appealed to the government to reinstate the budget.
In 2023, President William Ruto pledged to end doping in Kenya. His administration would spare $5 million USD each year for the next five years to combat the vice.
ADAK has suspended 78 athletes in an effort applauded by both WADA and the Athletic Integrity Unit (AIU).
The new spending allowed the AIU to increase testing sevenfold.
Sanctioning
Kenya is listed as a Category-A nation by WADA. Also listed are Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine meaning the countries remain a high risk for doping. Russia has served a national ban for systematic doping. Russia was also banned by both World Athletics and the IOC from the 2024 Paris Olympics due to its war in Ukraine.
ADAK was formed in 2016 to tackle doping after the country was threatened with being banned from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Despite the increased testing and scrutiny in Kenya, many athletes have been sanctioned for doping. However, interestingly, no Kenyan athlete tested positive at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. None during the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships, or this summer’s Paris Olympics.
However, not so at the 2022 Eugene World Athletics Championships.
For example, Kenyan Lawrence Cherono tested positive for trimetazidine. This is the same drug 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was found to have taken before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Cherono, won the 2019 Boston and Chicago marathons. He provided his sample during an out-of-competition test on May 23, 2022. He was informed of the adverse analytical finding upon his in Eugene.
Cherono has a lifetime best of 2:03:04.
