Members of Parliament on Wednesday blamed the Executive for misleading them over the anti-doping bill even as they made crucial changes demanded by the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA).
The MPs shifted blame to the Attorney General's office and Cabinet Secretary for Sports Hassan Wario for the gaps in the initial legislation that was later rejected by WADA.
Leader of majority Aden Duale (Garissa Township) and Chair of the Labour and Social Welfare committee, David Were (Matungu) absolved Parliament from blame. They said they did not make any changes to the original bill after MPs were assured that it had met all the conditions demanded by WADA.
"Parliament never made changes to the bill during its passage. This was not a failure of Parliament," said Duale even as he faulted WADA for being too hard on Kenya.
"Kenya is the third country in the world to have this form of legislation. There should also be pressure on other countries to have anti-doping laws instead of overly focusing on Kenya due to our sports prowess," said Duale.
"The National Assembly is the one that has been embarrassed. We presented this Bill to Parliament in good faith that is why we did not ask for the draft of what had been agreed on with WADA. Coming from the government, we did not doubt it," said Were.
Parliament was forced to re-consider the legislation after it emerged that MPs passed a document that WADA had not approved. The Agency had earlier blacklisted the county as one of those that had not complied with its stringent anti-doping requirements. There were reports that the county could be banned from the Olympic Games.
Among the amendments passed is one that will cause the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya to publicly expose cheating athletes, agents and suppliers of banned substances. The initial Bill had left out the part compelling the anti-doping agency to publish a report detailing its anti-doping activities in the country.
"The agency shall, within three months after the end of each financial year, cause to be made and submitted to the Cabinet Secretary a report dealing with the activities of the agency and such report shall be published publicly and a copy provided to the world anti-doping Agency," the new provision reads.
The new provisions also expand the mandate of the anti-doping agency to include anti-doping education and to also cover clubs, teams and leagues. The initial law only covered athletes, managers and coaches. The new provisions give it absolute autonomy to undertake all anti-doping activities in the country, which means that it will enjoy recognition from all sports federations in the country.
Wario and Solicitor General Njee Muturi however defended themselves at a meeting of the Labour committee. They argued that the rush to pass the bill had led to some of the provisions being diluted or left out.
"We had agreed on a draft with WADA and that is what I passed on to the AG. I did not change even a comma on what we agreed," said Wario.
"We don't overload legislation and that is where the gaps resulted from. They (WADA) declared us non-compliant without giving us time to explain why we made those changes. We wanted to appeal but we thought it would be a lengthy process, so we eventually agreed to go with what WADA wanted," said Njee Muturi.
The Bill will now proceed to Senate before being forwarded to the President for assent.
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