By Thompson ABISOLA
Kenya Anti-Doping Agency (ADAK), Chief Executive Officer, Japhter Rugut, on Saturday, said that lawyers would be trained and sensitise on anti-doping cases to fight the scourge in the country.
Anti-doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors. The use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical, and therefore prohibited, by most international sports organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.
Furthermore, athletes (or athletic programmes) taking explicit measures to evade detection exacerbates the ethical violation with overt deception and cheating.
Kenya decried the lack of capacity in having competent lawyers to handle doping cases, Rugut said.
“We currently have many matters in court at the Sports Disputes Tribunal we have instituted since inception.
“What we have found out is that we have very few lawyers in this country, who have specialised in Anti-Doping issues,” said Rugut.
The IAAF has classified Kenya, Ethiopia, Belarus and Ukraine as countries with highest potential of athletes abusing banned substances to enhance their performance.
Rugut said ADAK would soon submit a written proposal that will provide the framework on how it aspires to provide the technical grounding to advocates through its legal department.
The country’s anti-doping agency will put in place mechanisms to ensure that lawyers participating in the sensitisation and training forums earn Continuous Professional Development (CPD) points through the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).
LSK Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Wambua, welcomed the proposal saying anti-doping is one of the areas that would benefit lawyers.
“We look forward to working with ADAK in this endeavour and urge our members to take up the opportunity and ground themselves in Anti-Doping,” she said.
Over 50 Kenyan athletes have failed doping tests in the past six years.
All Kenyan athletes going for international competition will be tested three times in the 10 months prior to World Championships and Olympics.
