The government has pledged to financially support the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) just two weeks after the body announced that its operations had been paralysed due to financial constraints.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has moved to swiftly quell the prospect of Kenya facing sanctions from the World Anti-doping Agency by promising to assist ADAK in effectively conducting their mandate in testing athletes in the country.
Murkomen released a statement on Thursday, October 3, re-affirming the government’s stance in backing the Anti-doping Agency after holding a meeting with the agency’s board led by Daniel Makdwallo.
“We discussed ways to strengthen ADAK’s capacity by increasing its human and financial resources. Upholding the highest standards of integrity in sports by enhancing compliance with anti-doping policies remains our focus,” the CS stated.
Kipchumba Murkomen during a meeting on Thursday, September 3, 2024. PHOTO/Kipchumba Murkomen
The Star
Why it matters: Murkomen’s intervention could not have come at a better time since ADAK had just recently announced that operations had been paralysed since the agency was financially on its knees.
On September 17, Makdwallo pleaded with the National Treasury to reconsider the funding gap amid claims the budgetary allocation to ADAK had been slashed by Ksh208 million to Ksh20 million for the 2024 financial year.
“This financial year 2024/25, the Agency has not been allocated funding to undertake its core mandate programs (i.e. testing, education, and results management),” Makdwallo lamented.
Grounded operations by a country’s Anti-Doping agency are a breach of WADA’s non-compliance code and heighten the risk of the country getting kicked out of international competitions since no other body is mandated to test athletes for doping.
After the hefty budget cut, ADAK found itself in a tight spot since the agency could not source funds from alternative sources due to a possible conflict of interest from other possible sponsors. ADAK has to solely rely on the government for funding as this is paramount and necessary to ensure integrity is maintained.
Besides simply abiding by WADA rules, ADAK is crucial in ensuring sporting integrity is maintained among Kenyan athletes. In the build-up to the Paris Olympics, the body oversaw the testing of more than 1,500 athletes.
Murkomen, seemingly determined to make the sports sector more than just an afterthought in Kenya, appeared before the National Assembly last week where he openly voiced some of the concerns raised by various sporting agencies in the country, including ADAK.
“That sector needs our proper support. We are determined to ensure that ADAK receives all the necessary support because failing to do so means it is going to be the black spot…the threat to the commercialisation of sports in Kenya,” he said.
A photo of the AJAK emblem. PHOTO/AJAK
