Sports, Arts and Culture Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Hassan Wario. PHOTO/File
NAIROBI, February 19 – Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts and Culture Dr. Hassan Wario has urged Members of Parliament to fast track the adoption of Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) into law when the bill will be presented to Parliament.
Wario said the MPs should treat the bill as a national issue for them to meet the extended two months World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) deadline.
The minister outlined that Kenya is “fully co-operating” with WADA, as the country aims to prove it is tackling cheating in athletics.
“We are going to continue engaging WADA to ensure that Kenya reaches compliance status. The work has already started and we need to complete it in quick time.
“With the help of the legislators we will do it, so when the bill comes to parliament we hope our MPs will help us to fast track it so that we can meet the two months deadline. We recognize that there have been some delays in the process hence the lapse of one of the deadlines that had been put in place by WADA,” said Hassan Wario.
ADAK is racing against time in Naivasha where they are working on the structure before validating it on February 24 then forward it to the Cabinet for approval.
The policy and bill will be submitted to parliament for in to the enacted into law.
The government has released Sh300m ($3m) to ADAK to help them obtain the anti-doping equipment, identify offices with the aim of moving into them by April and employing staff.
On Thursday, IAAF chief Lord Coe said he was prepared to ban Kenya from the 2016 Olympics.
Kenya has already missed a deadline to provide assurances to Wada.
That led to it being placed on a ‘watch-list’ of nations at risk of breaching the agency’s code and prompted the comments by IAAF president Lord Coe.
Kenya is a dominant nation in distance running – topping the medal table at the 2015 World Athletics Championships – but has seen more than 40 of its athletes fail drug tests since 2011.
