AK President Tuwei Welcomes Nairobi WADA Accredited Lab

NAIROBI, Kenya- Athletics Kenya president, Lt. Gen (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei has hailed the first World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) approved laboratory in East Africa as a critical step towards ridding the region from the banned substance abuse menace.

Speaking to the press on Monday afternoon, Tuwei added the facility that will open its doors in September will boost other existing efforts in place to combat the vice that has seen almost 60 Kenyan athletes receive doping bans over the past five years.

The federation chief was responding to the announcement by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) earlier in the day that the LANCET Group of Labs East Africa (operating as Pathologists Lancet Kenya) had successfully applied for its Nairobi laboratory to become WADA approved for Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) blood analysis.

“While doping is as old as the sport itself, the menace in Kenya got to alarming levels in 2010. We have had a number of high profile cases and there seem to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

"However, I must say that as a country we are doing our best to ensure that this disease is a thing of the past,” the retired army chief who has been at the helm of the AK since late 2016 said.

The lab will collect samples from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea for analysis with Tuwei noting its establishment will make doping control in the region that provided 25 per cent of all samples collected by AIU last year more efficient.

Best news

“This is to say the least the best news we have had this year and We at AK are very excited about it.

“This means a lot for us and it means everything will be easier and the facility will help us fight this menace more effectively. It means we no longer have to go to Wada accredited laboratories Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania among other far places,” the federation chief hailed.

“This time round things will be faster, easier and cheaper and those who want to engage in doping will suffer the consequences. We are currently working very closely with AIU and ADAK and those who want to cheat should start counting their days.

“We believe there is no shortcut to success and this is not about to change, at least not in Kenya. We are determined to protect the clean athletes and this means we will have to be very ruthless with the few cheats who want to drag us in their machinations,” Tuwei warned.

He welcomed the lab as the latest boost in a chain of measures put in place since 2016 when Kenya averted a Rio 2016 Olympics ban by passing the Anti-Doping Act that criminalised the vice.

“We will all remember that in a bid to root out this issue the government set up ADAK in 2016 and I must say they have done well in as far as educating and sensitizing athletes on doping matters are concerned.

“Last year we set up the Kenya Doctors Network, which again has proved useful in the fight against doping. A week ago AK set up the Multi Agency Anti-Doping Governance Committee with the advise of AIU and we are in the process of operationalising it,” the AK President emphasised.

Kenya has been rocked by high-profile doping bust in recent years including former Olympic champion, Asbel Kiprop, who is accused by the AIU of using banned blood booster, EPO, the same substance that saw the Rio 2016 women marathon champion, Jemimah Sumgong, banned for four years.