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Ruth Chepng'etich (left) and Kibiwott Kandie celebrate winning past races in Nairobi.
On September 13 the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) declared Kenya non-compliant with its code and gave the country 21 days to conform or risk suspension. That deadline expires on Friday.
Should the local doping body Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) be suspended Kenya will lose a number of privileges including being barred from hosting World Athletics sanctioned events.
And should Adak not comply with the Wada code within a year from the suspension then Kenya could end up being banned from international athletics.
Adak has said reduced funding from the government has severely curtailed their activities that has in turn led to the shortcomings that Wada has identified.
Kenya is in Wada’s Category “A” that consists of countries with the most cases of positive doping tests. The others are Ethiopia, Nigeria, Morocco, Bahrain and Ukraine.
Russia, India, United States of America and Italy have the highest number of doping cases in the world but are not in Category “A” because of their robust testing systems.
Nation Sports takes a look at the doping situation in Kenya in recent years.
Between January 1 to July 31, this year, Adak has suspended 34 Kenyan athletes and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) 12, making a total of 46.
Over the last two years 208 Kenyan athletes have been banned for doping violations.
AIU banned 92 cheats while Adak caught 116.
The cases have increased over the years reflecting an increased number of tests conducted.
Biggest cases this year
Adak tested 8,145 athletes between 2021 and 2024 and 55,251 people have benefited from the organisation’s enhanced education and awareness campaigns over the same period.
AIU suspended 28 Kenyan athletes in 2022, 25 in 2023 and 39 in 2024 while Adak suspended 34 in 2022, 60 in 2023 and 72 in 2024.
In 2022, AIU banned 16 male and 12 female Kenyan athletes. Of these, 10 were flagged for using anabolic steroid norandrosterone, four for using male sex hormone testosterone, one for employing a masking agent, while six were sanctioned for tampering with samples.
In 2023, more women than men were caught doping, 13 versus 12 as AIU reported three cases of use of erythropoietin (EPO), a glycoprotein hormone, eight for testosterone and five for norandrosterone.
Last year, 20 Kenya women were caught by AIU for doping compared to 19 men as EPO cases surged to seven while seven athletes were busted for use of triamcinolone, a corticosteroid. In the same year two athletes were banned for use of masking agents while a whereabouts failure was recorded for the first time in two years.
Thus far this year, AIU has banned eight men and four women. Three cases were for use of triamcinolone, two for EPO and two for masking agents. Two cases involved Athletes Biological Passport (ABP) anomalies, the first time in three years.
The biggest cases this year were the suspension of women's marathon record holder Ruth Chepng'etich on July 17 for the use and presence of masking agent hydrochlorothiazide, and former half marathon world record holder Kibiwott Kandie in March for refusing to submit a sample.
All Adak cases this year are from athletics save for one.
Head of AIU, Brett Clothier notes that the increased cases of Kenyan athletes being caught is good news. “It shows that the combined efforts of the AIU, Adak and the Kenyan authorities are paying off.”
Clothier explains that the funding from the government has had a major impact, especially on the domestic anti-doping programme which is now catching cheaters more than ever in the past.
The government had between 2016 and the end of 2023 spent over Sh2 billion on Adak activities with doping body’s annual expenditures coming to about Sh240 million.
Kenya faced an international ban from WA in 2016 before President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the 2016 Anti-Doping Act that saw the creation of Adak.
In 2017, Kenya’s doping cases rose to 57 forcing World Athletics to place Kenya in Category “A”.
On September 17, last year, then Adak chairman Daniel Makdwallo warned that operations at the anti-doping body had almost ground to a halt after the government reduced funding from Sh298 million to Sh20m.
A source conversant with Adak operations disclosed that inconsistency in funding from the government, is one of the reasons why Wada has declared Kenya non-compliant.
