Parliament reconvenes to review Anti-Doping Act

MPs reconvene for a special sitting Thursday, breaking their long recess, to make changes to the Anti-Doping Act that will make Kenya compliant with Wada’s requirements on dealing with banned performance enhancing substances.

The National Assembly was recalled in a Gazette notice, by Speaker Justin Muturi for two sittings today to amend the law as demanded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to reverse the country’s non-compliant status and remove the risk of an Olympic ban.

President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Bill into law on April 22, but Wada declared Kenya non-compliant on May 12 citing certain sections of the Act that did not meet the world body’s requirements.

The Gazette notice said the session will be convened to look at: “(a) consideration in all stages of the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2016; (c) any other business related to the International Anti-Doping policies.”

The move by Muturi follows a high-level meeting between Wada director general David Howman with Cabinet secretaries Hassan Wario (Sports) and Amina Mohammed (Foreign Affairs) at the agency’s headquarters in Montreal, Canada last week.

AMENDMENTS NEEDED

Both parties agreed on amendments that needed to be made to the Act that were also compliant with the Kenyan laws.

The meeting agreed that the country was well on the way to full compliance, subject to changes made to the Kenya Anti-Doping Act.

Wada commended Kenya for demonstrating strong commitment by developing its Anti-Doping Law, saying that more than 80 per cent of the law is compliant.

“Kenya was declared non-compliant because certain laws were not consistent with the World Anti-Doping Code.  If the laws are amended as agreed today, I have no doubt that Wada’s Compliance Review Committee would recommend that the Foundation Board revoke Adak’s non-compliance status,” said Howman last week.

MPs had amended Clause 27 to protect athletes who are not knowledgeable on doping issues. That they cannot be held culpable.

In Clause 29, Wada wanted Kenya’s anti-doping agency Adak to arrest those suspected of doping, but MPs changed it to have the Adak agents to seek permission in writing from the Inspector General of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions first.

Despite the Wada verdict, Kenya got off the hook when the International Association of Athletics Federations and International Olympic Committee said they would not suspend the country. However, Russia was suspended last November after being found guilty of “state-sponsored” doping.

The IAAF will hear reports from its taskforce into Russia’s anti-doping progress at its council meeting in Vienna on June 17.