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House Committee accepts Korir’s Anti-Doping Draft Bill

The race to beat the extended compliance deadline set by the World Anti Doping Agency took a new twist when Cherangany MP and former Boston Marathon winner Wesley Korir presented an Anti-Doping Draft Bill to the National Assembly's Labour and Social Welfare Committee. PHOTO/Courtesy

Cherengany Member of Parliament Wesley Korir PHOTO/Courtesy

NAIROBI, March 10 – The race to beat the extended compliance deadline set by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) took a new twist when Cherangany MP and former Boston Marathon winner Wesley Korir presented an Anti-Doping Draft Bill to the National Assembly’s Labour and Social Welfare Committee.

This follows after the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi on Tuesday ordered the committee to convene Thursday to discuss fast tracking the Anti-Doping bill in Parliament and present a report to the house without delay.

Speaking when receiving the proposal, the committee’s vice chairman Samuel Gichigi, who is also the Kipipri MP said that only parliament has the powers to legislate, despite the Sports Ministry’s efforts to have a draft bill approved by WADA for presentation to Parliament.

“The ministry may have the proposal but until it comes to parliament and its published then it may take us somewhere and that’s where the Minister is making the mistake. We ought to be dealing with this in parliament because of the timeline as they engage the international body and that’s where the problem is arising,” Gichigi, who preceded the meeting in the absence of chairman David Were stated.

Committee member Sylvanus Osele who represents Kasipul Kabondo added that ministry’s proposed law could be incorporated as part of the amendments.

“The Ministry deals with policy while parliament deals with legislation so whatever they bring to us as a policy document is what we use to guide the legislation process so if whatever they have as recommendations has been accepted by the world body, we factor them as part of the bill that we have.

“That’s why in the process of making this legislation we involved all the stakeholders to ensure whatever we come with is acceptable,” Osele underscored.

Korir, who denied the National Assembly was hijacking an ongoing process, said the bill will be published before engaging the public to participate.

“What we have here is the Anti-Doping Legislation Proposal of 2015 what the Minister has is the Legislative Proposal 2016 which we have not received and we have never been consulted about it.

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“I have sent the same to WADA and as discussed today in the committee, is that we start the process and then bring all the amendments. WADA is one of the stakeholders that we are going to engage as members of parliament because I don’t think we need to consult them before we publish the bill,” Korir, the 2012 Boston winner told.

Parliament vs Ministry

Following the decision by the Committee to accept Korir’s Anti-Doping Legislative Proposal, it means Kenya is working on parallel Draft Bills, something that will delay further the meeting of the April deadline hence attracting ban from WADA.

When compared with the Draft Anti Doping Bill that is being sponsored by the Executive, some differences occur.

The Korir Sponsored bill speaks of the Kenya Anti Doping Agency while the Ministry’s bill speaks of the Anti Doping Agency of Kenya.

Another difference is the composition of the boards where Korir’s proposal includes a member of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya while the other bill excludes members of Sports Federations from serving on the agency’s board.

The severity of punishments also contrast where persons found criminally culpable, the Executive bill caps fines at Sh1m while the proposal from the National Assembly’s proposal has a fines of Sh3m.

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