Kenya risks WADA non-compliance after steep budget cuts to local anti-doping agency

Kenya risks being declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the country's government massively slashed the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK)'s budget for the 2024/25 financial year, Report informs via Xinhua.

ADAK chairman Daniel Makdwallo warned the agency cannot run its operations, having been allocated 20 million shillings (155,000 U.S. dollars) down from the 2.23 million dollars it received in the previous fiscal year.

"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 outgoing ADAK chief appealed to the government to reinstate the budget to ensure the smooth running of activities, such as testing, where a test costs around 670 to 780 dollars per athlete.

During the last three years, the Agency has sanctioned 78 athletes for Anti-Doping Rule violations in an effort commended by both WADA and the World Athletics anti-doping watchdog, the Athletic Integrity Unit (AIU).

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 following youth-led protests against the government that rocked Kenya in June and July.

In a meeting with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe in January last year, President William Ruto had pledged to end doping in Kenya and pledged his administration would spare 5 million dollars each year for the next five years to combat the vice.

The increased spending led the AIU to announce in July 2023 an unprecedented drug-testing program in Kenyan athletics with seven times the level of testing, compared to 2022 at the National Championships and the Trials for the Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Sources told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the move to make the budget cut public came after efforts to engage the state hit a brick wall.

Kenya was listed as a category A nation of the WADA in 2017, meaning the country remains a high risk for doping. ADAK was formed in 2016 to tackle doping after the country was threatened with being banned from the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Despite the nation still seeing many athletes sanctioned for doping in recent years, no Kenyan athlete that participated at the Tokyo Olympics, 2023 World Championships, and the recent Paris 2024 Olympics has fallen foul of anti-doping violations.

This has been credited to the rigorous testing by ADAK and AIU and stringent conditions placed on Kenyan athletes representing the country at major championships that, among other things, require each runner to undergo a mandatory three tests before being eligible to compete for the nation.