Opinion: It is time for races, the NCAA and global meets to cease inviting Kenyan athletes in lieu of a national ban

© Copyright – 2025 – Athletics Illustrated

It is time for race events, be it cross-country and track meets or college programs and road races, to cease inviting Kenyan athletes. A by proxy-like ban needs to take place.

If World Athletics (WA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are not willing or are not able to ban Athletics Kenya, then the market should dry up for them. “Market” is how Kenyans view global racing — it’s transactional. And yes, innocent Kenyans would be affected.

Depending on the source of the data, over 300 Kenyan athletes have been suspended for doping-related offences since the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. For any other country, this would decimate the athletics program.

Twenty-six suspensions in June 2024

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) provisionally suspended 26 runners for violating anti-doping rules. Rhonex Kipruto, the 10km world record holder, received a six-year ban.

Among the 26 runners was Joshua Belet, winner of the 2023 Amsterdam Marathon in 2:04:18. His suspension comes from the presence of multiple substances, including steroids and testosterone.

Kipruto received a provisional suspension in May 2023 because of irregularities found in his Athlete Biological Passport. A tribunal from the AIU heard his defense and decided that the results of his tests were “likely to be due to blood manipulation” from EPO. He has been banned from competition until May 10, 2029.

Two years prior, 27 were suspended. This is the new norm for Kenya, the global athletics community should not become apathetic about this absurd rate of doping.

WADA got involved in 2016

In December 2016, WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Department, together with WADA, and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) launched a project to examine the doping practices of Kenyan athletes.

The Project objectives were twofold:

1. Firstly, to understand the doping practices of Kenyan athletes with a view of identifying those involved at all levels.
2. To develop a multi-stakeholder network to better tackle Kenyan doping.

The Project targeted the following athletes (Target Group):

• Elite and sub-elite distance runners residing or training in Kenya and competing internationally;
• Associated coaches, support staff, chaperones, doctors, and ancillary medical staff; and
• Kenyan sporting officials (where there was a credible link to corruption or other serious crime).

According to WADA, between 2004 and 2018, a total of 138 Kenyan athletes from all sports, but the lion’s share from athletics had tested positive for prohibited substances.

Of those 138, the type of test (i.e., in-competition (IC) or out-of-competition (OOC)) was only available for 131 athletes.

Of those 131 athletes, only 13 per cent (18 of 131) were caught by OOC testing. The overwhelming majority, 86 per cent (113 of 131), were caught by IC testing. A Kenyan athlete, therefore, appears at a far greater risk of detection for doping IC than OOC.

These data set the alarm bells off, and the above efforts were actioned.

Kenyan government promised, then reneged on $5 million in funding to fight doping

In 2023, the Kenyan government, while quite embarrassed, approved USD $5 million per year to fight doping in its country. After 1.5 years, the government reneged on the deal. Why? Kenya reneged on the deal because doping in Kenya is a cesspool, a dumpster fire, a pandemic, and the results have just made the embarrassment run deeper. As soon as the funding dried up, the rate of doping suspensions ebbed.

These athletes are getting caught for straight up doping by testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Or, their Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) shows an anomaly in blood values, which only doping would have caused. They have been caught tampering with results. There are even cases where athletes have attempted to bribe doping control officers or fled out of windows. Finally, missing three tests in 12 months is enough to warrant a provisional, four-year ban. There have been a few of those.

Some red flags are demonstrated in absurd performances

In October, Ruth Chepn’getich ran 2:09:56 in the Chicago Marathon. This was an improvement from Tigst Assefa’s world record from the 2023 Berlin Marathon, which was 2:11:53, which was already a highly doubted performance. Back when Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe ran 2:15:25 (before super shoes) at London in 2003, there was doubt. World Athletics attempted to disqualify her performance because she drafted off a closed-in group of men. Chepn’getich’s performances take the absurdity to a level of the perverse.

During her career, the 30-year-old had run near Brigid Kosgei’s former world record once. In 2019, Kosgei had taken down Radcliffe’s record in Chicago with her 2:14:04 run. In 2022, Chepn’getich ran 2:14:18. To go from that time to 2:09:56 after a string of slower performances speaks to change — some major shift. Super shoes do factor in; however, they were being used for several years already. Maurten Bi-Carb (sodium bi-carbonate in a slurry) may have an influence, as athletes are apparently leaning on the product, but the drop of nearly four and a half minutes at that upper end of elitism and the length of career is a definite red flag for doping.

Chepn’getich came through the halfway mark in 1:04:16, which is the fifth-fastest women’s half-marathon ever. Then she ran 1:05:41. The second half she ran was the 36th all time. She placed 11th overall. Chepngetich was wearing Nike’s Alphafly 3. Some athletes like Sara Hall and Emma Bates were heard saying that the weather was warm and humid for marathon running. How much faster could she have run with perfect temperatures?

Although the World Athletics scoring tables are not perfect in measuring performance, they are particularly good. Chepngetich’s performance puts her ahead of Kelvin Kiptum, who ran Chicago in 2:00:35 in 2023. Hers is an equivalent of 1:59:37. As an Olympic athlete mentioned yesterday, “This performance is a jumping of the shark in athletics.”

Three-time Olympian and two-time fourth-place finisher in the Athens and Sydney Olympic Marathons, Jon Brown, wrote on social media, “This performance is criminality pure and simple. Cheating and stealing from other athletes, defrauding events, and damaging the viability of elite running events. If anyone wants to see how ridiculous this performance is, just compare it to equivalent performances on the iaaf scoring table, 2:09:56 is worth 1339 points.”

Jacob Kiplimo had a red flag moment, too

While not Kenyan, but Ugandan, Jacob Kiplimo has had his own red flag moment.

Kiplimo broke the half-marathon world record at the 2025 eDreams Mitja Marató de Barcelona by Brooks on Sunday, February 16. It was a performance beyond jaw-dropping, as he ran to a 56:42 performance. The previous course record was set in 2023 at 58:53. The Barcelona course has many turns, which slow athletes down, not speed them up. That alone should add several seconds to the race result over a course such as the Valencia Half Marathon.

The sport of athletics has been on the rise in Uganda over recent years. Ugandan athletes may see an opportunity to earn valuable prize money — as Kenyans do — by racing internationally. Both countries have modest economies, beneficial high-altitude topography and excellent training environments. Ethiopia also shares a border with Kenya to the north. There has been an increase recently in positive tests with Ethiopian athletes. Expect more positive tests to come from all three countries.

Doping and winning is theft; it is a criminal act

China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Tunisia, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Kenya and the United States of America all have laws related to sport doping to make it a criminal offence.

Not enough is being done in any of these nations to thwart the behavior, especially in Kenya.

Athletes win prize money, earn appearance fees, sign endorsement contracts and receive gifts, awards and recognition and accepting them while doping is stealing.

Suspended athlete Caroline Jeptanui finished 12th at the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships. The banned athlete competing in the collegiate competition has lit a firestorm of rage in the US. The story first appeared at Letsrun.com.

The NCAA should remove her results. ADAK should have informed her college or the NCAA.

If the various governing bodies and anti-doping agencies are unable or unwilling to ban Athletics Kenya and its athletes, then the market should dry up for them. All events should cease accepting registrations for these athletes to compete in all races and meets.

This by proxy ban should last until Kenya straightens out its doping problems. Not doing this will perpetuate the negative publicity that anti-doping efforts engender.