Teddy Otiego Osok rocks the seat from side to side as he gazes up while biting his lower lip, reminiscing about the struggles he has endured over the last four years.
The former Kenya Under-23 international and Harambee Stars call-up may feel he was let down in his hour of need by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) and Tusker Football Club, but he says he has no bitterness towards them.
Instead, Osok, who also played for Wazito in the Kenyan Premier League, seeks inspiration from the bible’s book of Joel 2:25, which talks of a biblical promise of divine restoration where God promises to “repay” or “restore” his people (the Israelites) the years of the locust plague.
The book refers to a devastating four-year period of severe agricultural, economic, and spiritual famine caused by an unrelenting plague of locusts, often called God’s “great army.”
Osok was banned for four years for violating anti-doping rules, the longest sentence given to an athlete in Kenya outside athletics and bodybuilding.
The longest ban in Kenyan sports history is 10 years, handed to long-distance runner Titus Ekiru in 2023 by the Athletics Integrity Unit for the use of Triamcinolone Acetonide, ethidine, and tampering.
Osok, who completed his punishment - a record in Kenyan football- on Thursday, is determined to pick up the pieces and bounce back even though he confesses he is still shocked at what happened.
He is now 27 years old. The ban came when he was at the peak of his footballing career, having just moved from Zambian Super League side Kitwe FC to 13-time Kenya Premier League champions Tusker FC.
He says that if he had known the injection he got from his team doctor after sustaining a serious knee injury in a Kenya Premier League would bring him anti-doping problems, then he would have sought alternative treatment.
Osok recalled that he travelled with Tusker for a KPL duel with Nzoia Sugar in December 2021 when he injured his knee in the early minutes of the fixture.
“Our team doctor gave me an injection to relieve the excruciating pain. I later had to undergo surgery. I remember the Adak testing officers took my samples the same month and twice in January 2022,” said Osok.
Former Kenya Under-23 international Teddy Otiego Osok.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Adak informed Osok he was being banished for four years, from March 21, 2022, for the presence of the prohibited substance Boldenone.
Boldenone is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) used primarily in veterinary medicine, especially for horses.
It’s mainly used to treat horses to improve weight, coat quality, and overall condition. It is used to increase protein synthesis, nitrogen retention, and appetite.
Boldenone can stimulate protein synthesis and the release of erythropoietin in the kidneys, hence its prohibition.
Osak wonders how such a substance was found in his body, as he would never knowingly take it.
“I have never used any performance-enhancing substance in my life, not even supplements,” he says with a glint of indignation in his eyes.
“But I got tired of following up the case at SDT, and it became too expensive hiring lawyers for two years,” said Osok.
Within that period, Tusker terminated his contract, leaving him jobless.
“I might have had a supportive wife and child, but it became a burden, and I got depressed. I felt like an outcast with some of my friends mocking me as a doper,” said Osok.
“I sought solace in alcohol but not for long after it dawned on me that I was leading myself to self-destruction, especially after a serious altercation with my wife one day, yet she was there for me,” explained Osok, who is based in Nairobi.
Osok says that he woke up one morning after almost two years of mental turmoil and decided to get his life back again. He dug out his football shoes and restarted physical training. He also ventured into age-grade coaching using his knowledge of playing football at the highest level in Kenya.
“I found joy in coaching age group teams in Mowlem estate. The ban and my time out have come with tough lessons. Being out has shown me my real and true friends,” said Osok, who thanked his wife and parents for standing by him during the ban.
Osok also singles out several players who came through for him during the difficult moments; his brother Elvis Osok and Bixente Otieno, who play for Posta Rangers, Kenya Police keeper Brian Musa, South African Premier League side, Polokwane City keeper Brian Bwire and Gor Mahia’s Alpha Onyango.
“Some of these football team doctors have no clue what to prescribe or not in the framework of the Wada protocols. We need more sensitisation seminars in football. More will fall to anti-doping rules without knowing,” said Osok.
The defensive midfielder, who has been keeping in shape lately in anticipation of the lapse of his ban, hopes to get a club soon.
Osok joined Western Stima in 2016 before moving to Gor Mahia in 2017, Sofapaka in 2018 and Wazito FC in 2019.
He went to Kitwe on a free transfer in 2020 before returning to the Kenyan Premier League with Tusker in 2021.
He was good enough to make the Kenya Under-23 team and was also called up in the Sebastien Migen African Nations Championships qualifiers team of 2019.
Osok’s ban ends at a time when Adak has provisionally suspended 27 sportsmen and women, among them seven football players.
All seven football players were flagged down for whereabouts failures that attract a two-year suspension.
Kenya Police FC midfielder Charles Ouma, Wilson Kamau Ndungu (formerly Murang’a Seal), John Collins Njuguna, and Benson Ochieng Oluoch, all of Nairobi United, were suspended on December 23, 2025, for whereabouts failures.
Also in the list is Kenyan international Rooney Onyango, who plays for Norwegian club Sogndal. He was flagged for whereabouts failure on February 12.
Onyango challenged his sanction at the Sports Dispute Tribunal and was cleared to resume all football-related activities pending a determination of the case.
Osok hopes to make it back to the Kenyan Premier League and revive a football career that looked so promising before he ran afoul of the anti-doping protocol, knowingly or unknowingly.
