Uhuru signs Anti-Doping Amendment Bill into law
What you need to know:
- This clears the way for the World Anti-Doping Agency to review Kenya’s compliance with its code.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday signed the 2016 Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill into law.
This clears the way for the World Anti-Doping Agency to review Kenya’s compliance with its code.
Wada's compliance committee had ruled that Kenya was "non-compliant" when its board met in Montreal, Canada, in May this year, citing issues related to the anti-doping legislation that had been hastily passed by Parliament in April.
“We look forward to Wada’s review and declaration of Kenya as compliant with existing rules,” said the President.
“Kenya has always supported clean sport and will continue to do so,” he added.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) chairman Kipchoge Keino and Solicitor-General Njee Muturi were also present during the signing of the crucial Bill.
Kenya, an athletics giant, missed two Wada deadlines to show it is tackling cheating in sport. The country won 11 medals at the London 2012 Olympics and topped the table at the World Championships in Beijing last year with 16 medals.
But the country has become mired in doping and bribery allegations, with more than 40 athletes failing drugs tests since 2011. Wada placed it on a "watch list" of nations at risk of breaching its code and gave it until April 5 to comply.
With the possibility of a Rio Olympics ban for Kenya’s athletes looming, the Government, led by President Kenyatta, acted quickly to contain the situation.
Kenyatta summoned Wario and sent him to Wada’s headquarters in Montreal together with Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to meet with top officials of the anti-doping agency.
Kenya was given more time to amend the Law to meet Wada’s demands and a special sitting of Parliament was called.
WADA REVIEW
It now remains for Wada to review Kenya’s status and possibly rule that the country is now compliant with its code.
According to Wario, Wada’s approval will allow Kenyan athletes to concentrate on the Rio Olympics as his ministry embarks on efforts to roll out educational programmes for Kenyan athletes on doping.
“I now have faith that we are on the right track, and I know that this will give our athletes peace of mind as they prepare for the Olympics in August,” he said.
On Tuesday, the International Olympics Committee held an emergency meeting in Laussane and unanimously endorsed a proposal to have Olympians (in all sports) from both Kenya and Russia subjected to mandatory individual doping assessments before being declared eligible to compete.
On Friday last week, the IAAF upheld a ban on all Russian field and track athletes competing in this year’s Olympics, although the Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov has since indicated that Russia’s clean athletes would contest this decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
