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Boost for Kenya in anti-doping fight as government allocates Ksh185M
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Reading Time: 2min | Tue. 03.06.25. | 16:52
The agency had seen its budget at the beginning of the 2024-2025 financial year slashed to a meagre Ksh20 million
Kenya can now breathe a huge sigh of relief following the announcement that the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has now been fully reinstated to its national budget allocation for the 2024-2025 financial year.
ADAK, at the beginning of its financial year in 2024, had publicly announced that the Government of Kenya had slashed its budget from Ksh288 million to a meagre Ksh20 million.
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The development sparked uproar among the body’s administrators, who asserted that Kenya faced the possibility of being labelled non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
But in the Tuesday, 3 June statement, ADAK wrote that the Government of Kenya had “made a major step in the country’s efforts to uphold integrity of sport” as they enhanced the cut budget to Ksh185 million.
The body, under the leadership of Acting CEO Peninah Wahome, noted that WADA flagged ADAK’s budget cut after an audit in May 2024, and went ahead to issue corrective actions.
ADAK further noted that they are “working diligently around the clock” to address the corrective actions and other mandatory requirements in a bid to maintain full compliance with the World Anti-Doping code.
Though cash-strapped to an extent of even failing to cover basic costs like rent and internet, ADAK noted that the lack of sufficient funding “did not affect” the implementation of their core mandate, thanks to Kenya’s pledge of Ksh3.2 billion over five years since April 2023 to combat the problem.
The Agency is now looking forward to ramping up efforts to surpass last year’s 4,161 doping tests, plus a slew of anti-doping education programmes to spread awareness country-wide.
ADAK also weighed in on the Enhanced Games - a proposed multisports event that would allow athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests - by strongly opposing it as an “idea that undermines decades of global anti-doping efforts and poses serious risk to athlete health and the integrity of the sport.”
