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Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | Rodney Swigelaar, the Africa director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), is visiting Kenya to discuss the progress of the country’s efforts to fight against doping.
Hosted by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), Swigelaar is scheduled to address various stakeholders in sports, including the government and local federations.
The WADA official has already paid a courtesy call to the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) headquarters and met with a delegation that included Kenya’s Head of Mission to the Paris 2024 Summer Games, Shadrak Maluki, and other officials.
“As athletes, most times we lack education or the people surrounding us don’t guide us enough. We are glad to have the Africa director here to hear from the government, the regulators [and] also from the athletes,” retired rugby sevens player and NOCK official Humphrey Kayange said in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Swigelaar’s visit comes as yet another Kenyan athlete, Betty Wilson Lempus, was handed a five-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) last week for two violations of the WADA rules as the country’s doping crisis continues.
Lempus was first charged with tampering or attempted tampering with any part of Doping Control, including obstructing or delaying the AIU’s investigation through the provision of false information or documentation in October 2022.
Then, last month, Lempus was further charged with the presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers (Triamcinolone Acetonide).
Lempus’ sanction stems from thorough investigations by the AIU – with critical assistance from ADAK – which uncovered that the athlete produced falsified medical documents to explain an adverse analytical finding for the presence of a metabolite of Triamcinolone Acetonide in her urine sample.
