How doping tormented Kenya and crushed many careers in 2025

Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the 2024 Chicago Marathon. [AFP]

The alarm bells rang and the dark clouds continued to hang on Kenyan athletics in the face of doping allegations in 2025.

To say that doping claims injured Kenya’s reputation especially in athletics is an understatement.

A global athletics powerhouse continued to choke under the menace.

Big names fell by the wayside as the fight to reduce cases of doping went on, but with little success this year.

They cut the figures of lethal destroyers of fields but doping allegations crushed their lofty dreams and ambitions.

Once again, doping hit Kenya hard in a World Championships year even as the country remains in category A of World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) watch list.

In October, women’s marathon world record-holder, Ruth Chepngetich was banned for three years after the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) rejected her defence.

Chepngetich, who stunned the world when she clocked 2:09:56 to become the first woman to dip under 2:10 in 42km at the Chicago marathon in 2024, told AIU that she had taken her housemaid’s medication - a claim that was rejected and the athlete became the highest Kenyan superstar to get crushed by doping.

Sadly, Chepngetich, 31, will not compete in any competitive race until 2028.

“While disappointing for those who put their trust in this athlete, this is how the system is supposed to work,” AIU chair David Howman said. The careers of many other Kenyan stars were met with heavy blows thanks to anti-doping rule violations.

By mid this year, for instance, former world Under-20 5,000m champion Edward Zakayo and Olympian Edinah Jebitok joined the long list of stars sanctioned for failing the integrity test.

They were among bigwigs including the 10 mile world best performer Bernard Koech, who was provisionally suspended by AIU.

Koech, who finished fifth in the men’s 10,000m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was suspended following an Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) anomaly. He was among eight others sanctioned by the unit in June.

Zakayo, was banned for two years after he was charged with willfully and knowingly failing to file his whereabouts and failing to avail himself two times for sample collection within a period of 12 months last year.

In one of the allegations, Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) told the Sports Dispute Tribunal (SDT) that determines most of the doping matters in Kenya that Zakayo was found by a Doping Control Officer (DCO) who had gone to his to his Kapsait training base to collect samples that he reportedly left the country for a competition a week prior and had not returned hence resulting in a missed test being recorded against him.

“With respect to the first whereabouts failure, the Respondent attributes this to the loss of his phone and SIM card during a trip to Lisbon. These devices, according to the Respondent, contained access information to his ADDAMS account where whereabouts information is updated.

“Regarding the second whereabouts failure, the Respondent claims he was returning from a competition in Spain when he received news of a bereavement. He alleges that he traveled to a rural village in Narok for a burial on 3rd February where there was no electricity or phone signal. The Respondent states that he informed his coach through a WhatsApp message that he was bereaved, but due to the coach’s absence, there was a miscommunication and Adak officials were informed that the Respondent was still participating in a cross-country race in Spain,” Zakayo told the tribunal in his defence.

Two-time Frankfurt marathon champion Brimin Misoi was, for instance, slapped with a suspension.

A quiet athlete but lethal on the road, Misoi cut the figure of a man on a mission especially after he savoured victory at the 2024 Sydney Marathon just before the Australian race was elevated to a World Marathon Major (WMM).

However, Misoi was suspended by AIU for the presence of prohibited substances Erythropoietin (EPO) and Furosemide. This year, the fight against doping took a new turn. This is after a youthful man from India was napped trading in banned substances in Iten, one of the world’s most preferred training destinations.

On May 5, an assortment of drugs allegedly containing banned performance enhancing drugs was discovered in a house rented by an Indian national Aman Malik, 18, in Iten.

According to sources, the rented house attracted attention after many athletes flocked there.

Adak investigators alongside the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and regular police officers were informed and they staged a raid after tip-off by a section of concerned athletes. Upon searching the premises, Adak reported, human growth hormones (HGH), meldonium and mannitol substances were discovered and seized.

Meldonium is a fatty acid oxidation inhibitor, and it is now principally used for heart conditions while mannitol is a sugar alcohol used to test for asthma, to reduce intracranial and intraocular pressure and to measure glomerular filtration rate among other uses.

Adak said it was concerned with the distribution of the banned substances in a manner that targeted the athletics fraternity.

Later in September, the JKIA Court in Nairobi found Malik, a teenager guilty of unlawfully importing and transporting some of the prohibited substances that have caused several Kenyan athletes to be banned for years and shamed a nation that has dominated the global stage for years.

But the three-year sentence and Sh1 million fine triggered questions and concern by sports stakeholders who argued that the punishment was lenient.

Prior to Malik’s sentencing, Wada had on September 12 charged Kenya with non-compliance, starting the clock towards sanctions that could hit the East African country next month.

The Montreal-based Wada found that Kenya’s national anti-doping agency “has still not addressed several critical requirements following an audit” conducted in May 2024.

Kenya was given 21 days to dispute the allegations or make the changes demanded by Wada, or be formally declared non-compliant.

There are four signatories to Wada’s code currently on the non-compliance list. They include Russia, Sri Lanka, the International Federation of Basque Pelota, and the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation.

But earlier in October, Kenya survived sanctions but was given a further four months to comply. This means that the country has until February to get itself off the hook.

According to Wada, the non-compliance charge was a result of Adak’s failure to address several critical requirements following an audit carried out by Wada in May last year.

“During that time and ahead of the October 2 deadline, significant and demonstrable progress was made by Adak, including the development of a corrective action plan outlining how it intends to address, within a four-month period, the outstanding critical requirements identified through the audit,” Wada said in a statement.

The global body went on to say: “This has led Wada Management to refer the matter back to the CRC for further consideration. Therefore, until such time as the CRC reassesses the case and potentially makes a further recommendation to the ExCo, and the ExCo reaches a subsequent decision, the consequences for Adak will not apply.”

Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya assured the country that the country had addressed 30 compliance issues out of 35 raised by Wada.

“To date, 30 out of 35 compliance issues raised by Wada have been addressed, with a progressive action plan submitted to resolve the remaining five,” Mvurya said in a statement in October.

In June, tougher rules to curb cheating, especially doping, featured in the collection of views spearheaded by a task force constituted last year to review Sports Act 2013 and delivery of a sports policy.

But the impact of doping has been huge on the country’s stars who have been storming to victories this year.

Athletics stars such as London and Berlin marathon champion Sabastia Sawe have expressed fears that the malpractice was putting in doubt genuine achievement of Kenyan athletes. He says most enthusiasts are increasingly doubting whether Kenyans were winning fairly.

“I am tired of reading constant doubts and accusations whenever a Kenyan athlete performs well. I acknowledge that doping is a real issue in our country, and ignoring it would be a mistake. We must face it, work with organizations like AIU and World Athletics, and fight this problem that feels like cancer for Kenyan athletes.

“My hope is to set an example, encourage others to act, and show that clean performances are possible. Above all, I want people to know that when I line up in Berlin, I am clean, and my results should not be questioned just because I am Kenyan,” said Sawe ahead of the 2025 Berlin Marathon.