Kenya Given New Deadline to Meet WADA Code

(ATR) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is giving Kenya another chance to comply with the global anti-doping code.

A WADA statement confirms the latest deadline for Kenya is April 5, which is the next meeting of WADA’s independent Compliance Review Committee. The review process came into play after the Kenyan government failed to pass the appropriate legislation and provide adequate funding for a new national anti-doping agency by the original Feb. 11 deadline.

If the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has still not adopted the necessary measures that bring it in line with the code by April 5, WADA says "consideration will be given to a possible recommendation of non-compliance to WADA’s Foundation Board." The board, which meets May 12, would then have the final say on Kenya’s status.

Should Kenya be held as non-compliant, the country faces the possibility of having its track and field athletes banned from this summer’s Rio Olympics.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe is on record as saying he would consider suspending Kenya if the country is in violation of the anti-doping code.

Kenya should not take the threat of suspension lightly, given that the IAAF has already suspended Russia’s track and field program following the WADA independent commission report showing systemic doping violations.

The battles with WADA are not the only problems plaguing the East African nation. A fourth high-ranking athletics official is now under investigation by the IAAF. Isaac Mwangi, CEO of Athletics Kenya, has been provisionally suspended for 180 days as the IAAF looks into "potential subversion of the anti-doping control process in Kenya."

The IAAF statement only mentioned "a complaint made against him and information that the IAAF Ethics Board has seen."

But two Kenya runners, speaking with the Associated Press, recently alleged that Mwangi asked them for money in exchange for more lenient sanctions after they failed doping tests at the 2015 world championships.

Written by Gerard Farek

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