Ruth Chepng’etich, (left) Sheila Chelangat, Kibiwott Kandie and Edward Zakayo who failed doping tests.
In the ending year, the weak link in the war against doping in sports globally became clear, forcing the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), World Athletics (WA) and National Anti-doping Organisations (NADOs) back to the drawing board.
In Kenya’s case, the focus has been on WA’s wing on integrity in the sport, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), and the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK). In general, the United States of America, India, Russia and Italy have more cases of doping than Kenya, but the reverse is true concerning athletics. In athletics, the statistics point to a grim situation in Kenya.
The number of disciplinary cases handled by AIU that touch on athletes who compete internationally has increased from 62 in 2021 to 100 in 2024, according to the body’s annual reports, while national cases went up from 185 to 305 in the same period.
Locally, ADAK and AIU banned 208 Kenyan athletes between 2022 and 2024. This translates to a total of 92 Kenyans banned by the AIU, while ADAK separately suspended 116.
AIU suspended 28 Kenyan athletes in 2022, 25 in 2023, and 39 in 2024, while ADAK banned 34 Kenyan athletes in 2022, 60 in 2023, and 72 in 2024, a clear indication that cases of doping are increasing every year. World Athletics attributes this increase in the number of doping cases to an enhanced anti-doping programme and system of testing by AIU and ADAK.
Ruth Chepngetich competes in 10km senior women race during Kenya Prisons Inter-Regional Cross Country Championship at the Kenya Prisons Staff Training College on January 18, 2025.
The 2019 world marathon champion Ruth Chepng’etich was the biggest casualty this year. In April, 31-year-old Chepng’etich was banned for three years for doping. The ban came less than a year after she had broken the world record marathon. She will keep the world record because the ban only applies to results posted after the positive test.
Chepng’etich’s case added to the increasing number of doping cases involving Kenyan athletes at a time when the country is still in Category A of countries where doping is most prevalent globally.
At the World Conference on Doping in Sport held from December 1-5 in Busan, South Korea, AIU chairman, David Howman, warned that the global fight against doping had “stalled”, with elite athletes evading detection systems that are failing to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated cheats.
Howman said that despite his organisation’s proven track record of identifying rule-breakers, his organisation is “not catching enough of them.”
“Let’s be honest and pragmatic … intentional dopers at the elite level are evading detection. We are not effective enough nowadays in catching cheats,” said Howman, who previously served as WADA’s director general for 13 years.
On July 17, AIU provisionally suspended Chepng’etich for the use and presence of the prohibited Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ). She had returned a positive test on April 3, 2025. Because she had accepted responsibility, her ban was reduced by a year, and she was handed three years.
Other big names banned this year include 2024 Olympic Games 100 metres bronze medallist Fred Kerley, who also won silver at the delayed 2020 Olympic Games held in 2021. Kerley was provisionally suspended in August for anti-doping violation, specifically whereabouts failure. In November 2025, world 100m silver medallist Marvin Bracy accepted a 45-month sanction for anti-doping rule violation.
So bad was Chepng’etich’s ban that World Athletics president Sebastian Coe in October said he was ‘frustrated’ that the Kenyan runner has the world record despite a three-year doping ban. Coe said that legal constraints shielded the 31-year-old from being stripped of her record.
"I'm not a lawyer mercifully, but there are some legal challenges, of course, that the burden of proof can only be a positive test and evidence that a doping infringement was taking place at the time that the performance was made," Coe observed at the time.
Chepng’etich broke the world record in women’s marathon in victory at the 2024 Chicago Marathon when she timed 2 hours, 09.56 seconds on October 13, 2024. On that occasion, she became the first woman to run the marathon in a sub-2:10 time. Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa set the old record of 2:11:53 in Berlin on September 24, 2023.
Sheila Chelangat, former world under-18, 3000m bronze medalist trains on roads inside a tea plantation at the scenic Kericho County on June 07, 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing directive, she trains alone just to keep fit. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Chepng’etich became the second athlete from Rosa Associati management to be banned this year. Her ban came just two months after AIU had provisionally suspended two-time national cross country champion Sheila Chelangat. Later, Chelangat, 27, was handed a six-year ban for the use of Erythropoietin (EPO), complicating the legal process.
Faith Chepkoech in action during the second edition of Nyamira Athletics 10km Series at Nyakongo in Masaba North Sub County on October 3, 2021.
AIU had banned Chelangat’s younger sister, the 21-year-old Faith Chepkoech, for three years in September 2024. The athlete confessed that she had used EPO. In March, former half-marathon world record holder Kibiwott Kandie was suspended for refusing to submit to sample collection.
Kibiwott Kandie celebrates after winning the 10,000m race during the Kenya Defence Force Athletics Championship at Ulinzi Sports Complex in May last year.
Also suspended this year are the 2018 world and Africa under-20 5,000m champion Edward Zakayo, 2023 world cross country team gold medallist Edinah Jebitok and the 2024 national 10,000m champion Roncer Kipkorir Konga.
Edward Zakayo from Elgeyo Marakwet County wins the Athletics Kenya North Rift Region Cross Country Championships 10km senior men’s race held at Kishaunet in West Pokot County on January 20, 2024. Zakayo clocked 27:47:2, John Korir from Trans nzoia County came second timed at 27:54:5 while Fredrick Domongole from West Pokot County finished third clocking 28:04.7.
The others are 2023 Barcelona Half Marathon champion Charles Kipkkurui Langat, Milan Half Marathon champion Morine Michira, 2024 Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon champion Ronald Kimeli Kurgat, and 2022/2023 Frankfurt Marathon champion Brimin Kipkorir.
The year also saw WADA declare Kenya non-compliant for flouting its code on September 12, 2025. Wada gave ADAK 21 days to comply in full or risk suspension starting from October 3, 2025. Inconsistency in funding from the government, which had affected ADAK’s operations since last year, is one of the reasons why WADA pounced on ADAK. ADAK had been unable to run its operation after the government had cut its funding from Sh298 million to Sh20m in the 2024 financial year.
A statement issued after the WADA Executive Committee meeting held in Prague, Czechia, warned that there would be further consequences for Kenya should the country fail to comply with WADA’s code within six to 12 months. A suspension would have seen Kenya banned from all sporting activities.
Back in Nairobi, the Departmental Committee on Sports and Culture accused National Treasury of reallocating funds meant for the fight against doping to other things.
The committee's chairman, Dan Wanyama, noted that the situation had put Kenya in jeopardy, and WADA was threatening to ban the country from hosting major sporting events.
In June, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi had proposed an allocation of Sh16.69 billion to the Department for Sports in the 2025/26 financial year budget estimates. Out of the sum, ADAK was allocated Sh241 million.
On October 2, Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya revealed that Kenya had complied with 30 out of the 35 issues that Wada had raised, but Mvurya failed to disclose exactly what Kenya had complied with.
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