Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) held its first Multi-Agency workshop with National Government administration officers, community leaders and county sports administrators, to help curb the doping menace that has seen the country ranked in category A by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The community leaders led by the Kaburwo council of elders were taken through a day training at the Eliud Kipchoge Sports Complex, in Kaptagat, Nandi County on Saturday 11th November, on how they can assist the Agency in gathering intelligence of athlete support personnel enabling doping and reporting suspected cases confidentially.
“I used to think this was a myth on the doping cases but now in our village the monster has slithered its way to our village and now we have an athlete who has failed their doping test. It’s quite sad to see a young talent get banned for years because of greed. Thank you ADAK for this workshop,” said John Teka the secretary of Kaburwo Council of Elders.
Speaking during the event after a five kilometer walk, Nandi County Governor told the community leaders that they have the full support from the county to help execute their duties adding that any training camp that has been linked to a number of athletes caught doping risk being closed and the support staff banned from the sport.
“We have a lot pride when we see our athletes win and get celebrated and as the celebration is going on we think of, if the athlete is clean or it will be another embarrassing case of celebrating a cheat. We need to end this and redeem our image globally. We cannot have young sports men and women ending their careers early because of greed.” Said Sang.
ADAK CEO Sarah Shibutse said she has faith that in the next coming years the number of positive cases will drop because by then they expect that every athlete and support personnel understand the consequences of doping.
“This multi-agency approach will help us ensure that every athlete that is going to compete is competing clean, any sanctioned athlete is not allowed to compete or travel outside for competition or mingle with other athletes. We cannot win this fight alone we need to ensure that every player is on board. We started with Kericho County now we are in Nandi and we shall visit other counties to do this not only for athletics but for other sports too.” Said Shibutse.
Shibutse added that with the enhanced testing they have gotten a response that quite a number of athletes are running away and do not want to be tested. Which indicates that there must be something they are hiding for them to be running away. She also pointed out that the number of athletes have tested positive and the legal team is set to release the list of athletes who have been suspended.
The event was also graced by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba.
“We need to check which camps this athletes are from, so that they can be visited or raid those camps and see what’s happening therein. We need to know who are their coaches, are they the ones helping them to dope? Is it the coaches telling them not to dope but the athletes do it anyway? Once we establish that we shall deal with them in a criminal courts. The Government cannot invest Ksh 3.5 Billion and fail to eradicate the menace. So be warned,” said Ababu.
