Kenyan anti-doping body gets China, Norway boost

The newly constituted Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) is ready to roll out its operation to combat the vice after entering a one-year partnership with the Chinese and Norwegian anti-doping bodies on Friday.

The ADAK will also work for a year with the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (RADA) as it launches its work following intense pressure on Kenya to take a pro-active stance against proscribed substance use among her sportspersons, mostly distance runners by World Anti-Doping Agency after a huge surge in positive tests in the last two years.

Speaking late on Friday when signing the memorandum of understanding that also incorporated National Olympics Committee of Kenya, Cabinet Sectary for Sports, Culture and Arts Hassan Wario said the partnership will assist in curbing the doping menace in the country.

"We shall cooperate in the field of anti-doping, share ideas and resources to build a strong and robust anti-doping movement in Kenya, our efforts shall be geared towards the protection of clean athletes," Wario said.

"We shall all work together to build a strong and effective agency which will spearhead testing, sensitization, training and investigation," he added.

Norway Anti-Doping Agency CEO, Anders Solheim, said they will bring in their experience to help Adakrun the body professionally.

"It's important to give ADAK the competence and mandate to do their work and have independent hearing and appeal panel so that we have a resort management process in place," said Solheim after concluding a three-day Anti-Doping workshop in Nairobi.

"We will use our experience to train doping officers and testing Kenyan athletes because Anti-doping is about partnerships we need to get everyone on board including federations," Solheim underscored.

The ADAK was brought to being after WADA threatened to instigate a ban on Kenya from Olympics and IAAF World Championships after a rise in cases involving her runners, 32 in 2014 and 14 with the high profile cases involving female marathon star, Rita Jeptoo, who tested positive for EPO dominating headlines from October last year.