WADA declares Kenya compliant to its Code

Kenya was declared compliant to the World Anti-Doping Agency Code on Thursday night in what will be a major boost for the country’s athletes barely 24-hours before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The statement bearing the welcome development was sent by the global anti-doping body in a brief statement.

“Following a circular vote of its Foundation Board members, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wishes to announce that it has removed the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) from the list of signatories previously deemed non-compliant with the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code (the Code).

“Kenya has drafted and adopted anti-doping legislation now deemed to be in line with the Code.

“As stipulated in Article 23.5.5 of the Code, WADA will report the declarations of non-compliance to the Sports Movement and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),” the communication read in full.

Although the country’s athletes were not banned from participating at the Rio 2016 Olympics, the decision to declare Kenya non-compliant on May 12 despite the fast-tracked passing of the Anti-Doping Law of 2016 placed the unwanted spotlight on the nation’s revered track and field team.

Kenya got into WADA’s cross hairs after the country missed two deadlines to comply with the Code or risk her athletes being thrown out of international competition including the Olympics whose opening ceremony is on Friday.

The establishment of ADAK and enactment of anti-doping legislation were listed as key requirements as the anti-doping watchdog clamped down on Kenya to deal with the escalating use of proscribed drugs by the country’s athletes with over 40 serving suspensions since 2012.

Soon after the country was declared non-compliant, President Uhuru Kenyatta summoned top officials and dispatched a delegation led by Cabinet Secretaries Dr. Hassan Wario (Sports) and Ambassador Amina Mohamed (Foreign Affairs) to WADA headquarters in Canada.

“As WADA Director General put it, it is a learning curve for them as it is for us. We insisted from the beginning that we are compliant as a nation and in a way, we were cutting new pathways.

“We are among the few countries with an Anti-Doping Act in the world which means there was no template to follow. We were looking at the analogy of the traffic light where we have red, green and amber. We felt at that time that WADA did not have amber, it was red or green. We fell more on the amber side, which is very good, which is more than 80 percent of the act was seen to be complaint,” Wario said after returning to the country from Montreal on May 19.

National Assembly Speaker, Justin Muturi, announced a day later he had reconvened the august house that was on recess on May 26 to debate the Anti-Doping  (Amendment) Bill of 2016 that was unanimously approved.

On June 16, Wario announced WADA had approved the changes made to the faulty law before it was signed by President Uhuru shortly after.

Already, the force of the new law is being felt with authorities charging two Italians and five Kenyans with charges related to doping.

However, the world athletics governing body, the IAAF continues to place Kenya in its red-list until December while the International Olympics Committee ordered the country’s athletes taking part in Rio 2016 would be tested twice and results processed by internationally accredited labs before being allowed to compete.

With ADAK slapped with the non-compliant tag, it was left to the Regional Anti-Doping Organization (Rado) Africa Zone V to conduct the tests at the team’s camp in Eldoret.

Speaking at Kipchoge Keino High Performance Training Centre in Eldoret after a session with athletes, Rado Zone V Executive Manager, Christine Mugera, said it was in the best interest of the athletes to comply with the process after the athletes complained the heightened testing regime was interfering with training.

“There have been misconception about the process and that is why we came here to clarify and enlighten the athletes and how we operate,”Mugera said last week.