Kenya Non-Compliant Amidst Pressure from World Anti-Doping Agency

Kenya has just been declared as 'non-compliant' by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for violating the anti-doping authority's rules which could possibly bar the country's top athletes from participating in 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The announcement was made last Thursday evening after the organization's Compliance Review Committee discovered a number of compliance failures which led to a unanimous recommendation to reprimand Kenya for non-compliance with immediate effect adding that the recently passed Kenyan Anti-Doping law did not follow the guidelines set in the WADA code.

"In keeping with the enhanced compliance process under the 2015 Code, the Foundation Board declared the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) non-compliant with immediate effect. The Kenyan authorities had been given a series of deadlines to introduce a parliamentary bill, policy and rules for the ADAK; however... outstanding issues had still not been addressed and so made the recommendation of non-compliance to the Board," the official announcement reads.

Because of the recent WADA announcement, Kenyan's elite sports athletes are on the precipice as they await the decision of the International Athletics Association Federation (IAAF) whether to continue playing in the Rio Olympics or not this August. For quite some time, Kenya is repeatedly pressured by WADA to crack down on doping practices by some athletes just to get ahead in sports.

Heeding to WADA's demands, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has recently signed into a parliamentary legislation creating an anti-national doping agency that imposes discipline and penalty including imprisonment to athletes convicted of doping as per BBC Sports. Apparently, the legislation wasn't enough to fulfill WADA's compliance standards.

Meanwhile, the IAFF has given Kenyan athletes the green light to compete at this year's summer Rio Olympics despite the prevalence of doping cases in Kenya's sports world and the inability of its dysfunctional drug-testing agency.

"That's good news, hey," Kenya track federation president Jackson Tuwei as quoted by ESPN. "That's real good news. That is the best news I've had, at least for today."