 AP Photo/Ben Curtis |
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan authorities scrambled Friday to sort out the doping problems that have put their track and field team’s participation in doubt for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Legislation will now be hurriedly rewritten and pushed through parliament in an attempt to make the country compliant again with global anti-doping rules, the sports minister said.
Sports Minister Hassan Wario maintained Kenya could have a swift solution after its new law was rejected and its drug-testing body declared non-compliant Thursday by the World Anti-Doping Agency. That raised the possibility that track and field’s world governing body might go a step further and suspend the distance-running powerhouse from international competition.
With less than three months to go to the Olympics, an IAAF ban would likely see Kenyan runners such as 800-meter world record-holder David Rudisha excluded from the games.
WADA’s surprise decision to suspend Kenya’s anti-doping body came after the East African nation finally passed legislation last month following two missed deadlines. Kenya celebrated the passing of the law then and hailed it a success, but WADA on Thursday described the legislation as “a complete mess.” Late changes had been made, causing it to be rejected, WADA said.
Wario said Friday that WADA had pointed out which parts of the law needed changing. He said the problem areas can be “rewritten or rectified.”
“Meaning that as soon as parliament reviews those highlighted bits of the legislation we are fully compliant,” Wario said in a statement sent by text message to reporters. “No ban was mentioned in the body of the letter.”
That’s because WADA doesn’t have the power to enforce a ban on Kenya’s athletes, but the IAAF does, and it did with Russia after its anti-doping program was declared non-compliant following allegations of corruption and doping cover-ups last year.
Kenya is also severely testing the IAAF’s patience.
It has failed to effectively combat the serious doping problems that were uncovered as far back as 2012. IAAF President Sebastian Coe has said a ban against Kenya is possible if it is in breach of anti-doping rules, which it is now after WADA’s decision.
Since the last 2012 London Olympics, 40 Kenyan track and field athletes have been banned for doping – a rate of around one a month – and four senior track officials are under investigation by the IAAF for potential subversion of the anti-doping process.
Those scandals, and Thursday’s non-compliance declaration, might now push the IAAF to consider a more serious sanction.
It means Kenya’s athletes, who tied with Jamaica for the most gold medals at the world championships last year, are uncertain if they’re even going to the Olympics this year.
“We don’t know the way forward,” javelin world champion Julius Yego said. “Should we continue training or do we stop? We do not want to waste our time on something we cannot achieve.”
Political fallout was also likely after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta personally took charge of pushing the legislation through parliament last month, and said publicly that it would solve the problems. Sports Minister Wario and anti-doping agency CEO Japhter Rugut were summoned to Kenyatta’s office Friday to explain why the legislation they put together and Kenyatta signed into law was rejected by WADA.
