Kenya declared non-compliant

MONTREAL, Canada: The World Anti-Doping Agency found Kenya to be non-compliant with the WADA Code on Thursday, saying changes needed to be made to legislation recently enacted by the African nation.

The surprise move could lead to Kenyan athletes missing August’s Rio Olympics if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) so deems. Only the IOC can ban a sport or country from the Olympics.

“There are sufficiently major changes (in the new legislation) that they wouldn’t be operating under the same rules as everybody else, so we need to get it right,” WADA president Craig Reedie told Reuters.

WADA’s compliance review committee said that Kenya was found non-compliant. Under the WADA Code, non-compliant countries and sporting federations risk being prohibited from holding international events.

Kenya’s parliament had passed, and its president signed, a law last month that will criminalise doping.

Many thought that would satisfy WADA’s threat to sanction the African nation famous for its middle and long-distance runners. But Reedie said the legislation was not code compliant.

“We have been working with Kenya for a number of years and thought we had agreed that the draft legislation and rules were entirely compliant and it would appear that during their parliamentary process changes were made that unfortunately weren’t code compliant, so we will be in touch with Kenya to try and resolve that at the earliest possible moment.”

WADA had given Kenya until May to enact the law or be declared non-compliant. Kenyan running great Kipchoge Keino, who is chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), described WADA’s move as “very unfortunate” but also said that his government had not acted quickly enough in the crusade against doping.