Parliament recalled to debate anti-doping law amendments

Parliament will be convened for a special sitting next Thursday (May 26) to debate amendments on the Anti-Doping Bill of 2016 as Kenya races to reverse the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA’s) non-compliant verdict.

National Assembly Speaker, Justin Muturi, made the announcement to recall Parliament that is on recess until June 6 for two sittings where Members will go through the changes to the law signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on April 22 agreed upon by Government and WADA.

“Pursuant to Standing Order 29 (3) of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly, it is notified for the information of Members of the National Assembly and the general public that two special sittings of the Assembly shall be held in the National Assembly Chamber in the Main Parliament Buildings, Nairobi on Thursday, 26th May, 2016 at 9:30 a.m and 2:30 p.m for the purposes of –

“(a) consideration in all stages of the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2016; (c) any other business related to the International Anti-Doping policies; and,” part of the Gazette Notice read.

The development is strong indication that the country is keen on ensuring compliance with the WADA Code following the negative publicity generated following the stunning decision to declare the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) non-compliant on May 12.

A high-powered delegation led by Cabinet Secretaries, Ambassador Amina Mohammed (Foreign Affairs) and Dr. Hassan Wario (Sports) travelled to WADA head quarters in Montreal, Canada to deliberate on the 26 clauses of the Bill where the anti-doping organisation claimed changes were made without their consent.

Wario returned back to the country on Thursday night where he outlined the road map to regain compliance following discussions with WADA with part of the delegation left behind to resolve the remaining clauses where agreement has not been reached (read it here)

-Wario Olympics-

Meanwhile, adds Jacob Icia, Wario announced he was not worried of the negative image painted on Kenya ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics in the wake of the non-compliance verdict.

Speaking to Citizen Digital on Thursday night at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport upon arrival from Canada, Wario lamented WADA’s verdict was blown out of proportion.

“Obviously Kenya will be looked at with a critical eye because we are world champions. The scrutiny is different from other countries, remember not every country in Africa has an anti-doping agency.

“We are not going to the Olympics shy, we are going to take the medals as the true champions. This other home work is more or less done, and it was never tied to Olympics. It was about setting up a national anti-doping organization (NADO), not about Olympics at all,” he underscored.

“The matter was taken out of context, people jumped here and there because sport is very important to this country. What is very encouraging is just the amount of debate we had in the last one week. Kenya is engaged and engaged further, with issues to do with sports because it is a very important part of our GDP, national cohesion and leisure hence the hot debate,” the minister stated.

Wario said Government was in constant communication with Olympics body, IOC and world athletics’ umbrella, IAAF over the matter.

“IOC has contacted my colleagues, Kipchoge Keino (National Olympics boss) to ensure all pertaining to the Olympics were handled properly, but our focus was where the issue was, and that was in WADA.”