Partnership with sports federations key for Adak

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) is established and operationalized by the Anti-Doping Act, 2016, which is supported by the Anti-Doping Rules, 2016.

The requirement by the rules that all sports federations have to provide for anti-doping sensitization opportunities in their constitutions has also assisted the agency to work as a team to ensure the promotion of clean sport.

Generally, Adak has partnered with other anti-doping organisations such as the Anti-Doping Norway.

The main aim of the partnership with Anti-Doping Norway is to ensure that the agency maintains the required standards through picking on the world’s best practices. Through this partnership the agency has managed to train anti-doping educators, doping control officers and chaperones so as to enhance their skills and ultimately ensure the effectiveness of their services.

Also trained are blood collection officers who collect blood samples from our athletes.. Another anti-doping organization that has been instrumental in capacity building for members of the Sports Disputes Tribunal is the South African Institute for Doping Free Sport.

Adak soon hopes to acquire the ISO 9001:2015 certification to establish a Quality Management System.

“This is going to be testament that organisational practices are aligned to international standards,” says Adak chief executive officer Japhter Rugut.

“It is in addition to the fact that in August last year, Wada declared Adak’s processes compliant to the World Anti-Doping Code after a thorough audit conducted in 2016,” he adds.

Some of the challenges include the fact that Kenya lacks a Wada accredited laboratory which means that Adak has to ship the urine and blood samples to other parts of the world for analysis.

“This means the samples, especially blood, are at risk of not reaching the lab within the stipulated time frame and may therefore not be valid for analysis,” explains Rugut.

“In addition, this has made testing an expensive affair both financially and in terms of ensuring that we stick to the strict timelines that are characteristic with shipping of blood samples. Another challenge is funding where with the exponential growth in size and scope of our anti-doping education and testing programs the agency will, in the near future, require additional funding so as to reach as many athletes and sports disciplines as possible.

“This will also add impetus to our effort to ensure that our sporting environment is clean. The additional funding will, correspondingly, go a long way in enhancing the results management process where the ability to cover more appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport will be improved.”

Adak enjoys an affable working relationship with sports federations in Kenya.

“We view each other as team mates and engage as such. We both look forward to creating and maintaining an atmosphere of clean sport and thus complement each other’s effort towards the achievement of this goal,” explains Rugut.

“Whenever we are conducting anti-doping education sensitization programs, for instance, sports federations come in handy by mobilizing their members to attend the forums.

“With the realisation that doping can cost our sports people, and our country in general, each one of us in the sector is playing their rightful role towards eradication of the doping blemish. The results may not be immediate but we are confident that with the much we have achieved this far, and within a very short period, much more lies in store for us.”