Adak boss Rugut confident Kenya is winning fight against banned drugs

Doping in Kenya continues to be an issue of great concern, with close to 60 Kenyan athletes currently serving suspensions of between two and eight years. Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) Chief Executive Officer Japhter Rugut spoke to our writer Ayumba Ayodi on the gains made by the anti-doping agency and challenges it has faced in the battle since its formation four years ago.

Q: How did the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya come about?

A: With the rise of doping cases in the country especially in athletics, there was pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and World Athletics (WA) for Kenya to take urgent action.

That is when this State Corporation was established through the Anti-Doping Act, 2016. Adak’s mandate is to protect athletes’ fundamental rights to participate in doping-free sport.

Our vision is to protect clean athletes and promote fair play and that has been done through co-ordinated national anti-doping education and awareness campaigns, testing and promotion of integrity for doping-free sport.

Q: How many tests, workshops and other outreach programmes have you accomplished since, and how has been the response?

A: We have achieved major milestones in our education and sensitization drive, and this is thanks to the timely funding from the government.

The Sports Culture and Social Development Fund, that was established last year, has also come to our rescue at the time of need.

We got Sh26 million for the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships testing programme and Sh17 million for Tokyo Olympics that has been pushed to next year. We have so far held 142 workshops with 11,513 people participating since 2016. The number of outreach programmes conducted stands at 136 with 69,109 people benefiting.

We have also conducted 26 value based education programmes where 3,209 school going children have also benefited. We surely need to teach them while still young.

We have achieved a lot in testing where we have managed 4,116 tests, including 3,552 urine and 545 blood tests between 2016 and March, 2020.

We started with 545 in 2016 to 1,200 in 2019. We had targeted 1,250 this year but we had done 970 by March this year meaning that we could have surpassed our target if not for the Covid-19 restrictions. This clearly shows that we have the capacity and the muscle to handle more tests.

Q: With all these milestones, how many Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases have you registered and how many have been reprimanded?

A. We have registered 120 Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases since 2016 where some have been sanctioned and others are in progress. Adak has handled 84 cases while Athletes Integrity Unit (AIU) 27.

Before Adak was registered, the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (Rado) had handled five cases while the French Anti-Doping Agency has handled four cases that are of Kenyan athletes who were training or competing in France.

Q. Which other agencies are you co-operating with to make your work easier?

A. We have been able to capture or receive anti-doping intelligence from all available sources, including athletes and their support personnel and members of the public, sample collection personnel, laboratories, national sports federations, law enforcement, other regulatory and disciplinary bodies.

We ensure that the anti-doping intelligence received are relevant, reliable and accurate, taking into account the nature of the source and the circumstances in which the intelligence has been captured or received.

More specifically, besides the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and AIU, we have strong ties with Turkish Anti-Doping Agency and Anti-Doping Norway, and that tells you why our tests are now going scientific with the focus now turning to Athletes Blood Passport analysis.

A case in mind is that of 2016 Rio Olympic marathon champion Jemimah Sumgong where AIU sought our help and that is why she was able to get up to eight years ban.

Q: How is the advanced scientific testing and analysis of blood and urine samples going to take the battle against doping to the next level?

A. Some athletes, their support personnel and even managements have been crafty. They collude to dodge and escape after taking illegal performance enhancing drugs. That is why there are so many cases of whereabouts.

They know it can take up to 21 days for illegal substances like Erythropoietin (Epo) to get erased from their systems. But the profiling process through Athletes Blood Passport (ABP) will eventually smoke them out since it’s a process that covers longer period of time.

The spike in those failing doping test is bound to raise with more ABP cases coming up. High profile case will eventually act as a deterrent to those who want to engage in the vice.

The opening of Wada-approved laboratory for Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) blood analysis in 2018 in Nairobi took the battle to the next level.

We no longer go to South Africa and Qatar but these centres are still helpful.

Q: Why are doping cases still on the rise despite Adak, Wada and AIU efforts to stem the vice?

A: What is even shocking is that those being caught to have doped are senior and elite athletes who are conversant with doping issues and are more exposed to technology.

The only problem is that these athletes don’t want to listen!

Their attitude and culture must change and that is why Athletics Kenya must not relent in their campaign.

Peer pressure, support from support persons and even their managements are some of the contributing factors.

People want to get rich quickly, drive big cars and build good houses without knowing that it takes time.

It’s now coming a business venture and a way of generating money.

Most of Adak cases in athletics are from minor races in Asia, Far East and South America where they get cash rewards immediately after the races. Most of the races are not keen on anti-doping laws.

That is why the 2018 report by Wada on the state of doping in Kenya indicated that the cases are opportunistic with no particular system in place.

Q: Why are there more cases from AIU and not Adak?

A: On the contrary, Adak ADRV cases are over 80, against 27 of AIU.

But also, AIU has a registered testing pool of 100 Kenyan athletes while Adak has 56.

We are looking forward to increasing the testing pool. More so, Adak mainly focuses on local cases and not elite cases that are handled by AIU.

We avoid having athletes in both pools to avoid duplication.

Adak too doesn’t have the muscle to handle elite cases since it will be expensive to follow most of them across the world. The sporting fraternity also needs to understand that we are guided by laws.

We only publicize a case after we are through with legal issues and culprits are reprimanded, unlike AIU who announce their cases with all other issues like appeals to follow.

Q: So is the war against doping in sports being won?

A. Yes, it is. The arrest and arraignment of more criminals reflects the success of a criminal justice system, rather than if the crimes were being perpetrated undetected.

That is until the wrong doers realise they cannot get away from the system that has been put in place against them.

We are not only targeting athletics, but other disciplines like bodybuilding, weightlifting, swimming and many others where tests have been done and culprits reprimanded.