A matter of state: Kenya vowed to “fight doping” amid multiple cases

“The challenge in Kenya is difficult and chaotic.” Sebastian Coe’s phrase at the last meeting of the World Athletics World Council, in Rome, summarized the complicated situation faced by the cradle of the best long-distance runners in the world. Doping hits the African country hard, more than 50 athletes are sanctioned and many of these cases occurred last year.

Doping is a matter of state in Kenya and if the country was not excluded from international competitions, it is because for Coe, president of World Athletics, “there is no evidence that this is sponsored or insured” by the government. In this context, 2023 began with a key meeting in Nairobi.

William Ruto, president of Kenya, received Coe at the Government House and assured that “he will spare no effort in the fight against doping. We will collaborate with partners, athletes and their contacts to fight against doping, which is threatening our heritage.”

Ruto also announced that the Kenyan Government will have 3.7 billion shillings (about 26 million dollars) to develop anti-doping programs over the next five years.

“The road will be long, don’t be fooled, it won’t be resolved overnight,” Coe said at a press conference together with the Sports Minister, Ababu Namwamba, who when he took office last November recognized “the doping crisis” that Kenya is going through and spoke of “criminalizing doping”.

“The Kenya Anti-Doping Act of 2016 is not, in my opinion, loaded enough to meet this challenge with the required force. Our initial investigations are that there is a very complex underground union. It involves agents, coaches and doctors, so multiple instruments will need to be deployed to dismantle that union,” Namwamba explained in an interview with BBC Sport Africa.

“I think we should criminalize doping and raise the management of doping substances to the same level as narcotics. So, just as we treat drug traffickers, we must treat those who are engaged in this practice,” said the minister.

In 2022, nearly 30 Kenyan doping cases were reported and the year ended with a six-year suspension for Diana Chemtai Kipyokei, who in 2021 won the Boston Marathon, one of the most important on the calendar.

The runner had been provisionally suspended since October and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) confirmed the harsh sanction on December 20 for altering tests and the use of triamcinolone. Kipyokei will not be able to compete until June 2028.

At the same time, the AIU announced the five-year suspension of Purity Cherotich Rionoripo, in this case for having tested positive for furosemide (diuretic) and the use of false documents as well. The marathon runner had among her victories those of Paris 2017 and Prague 2021.

A few days earlier, three other doping cases had been reported: fellow marathon runners Alice Jepkemboi Kimutai and Johnstone Kibet Maiyo, and sprinter Mark Otieno. The Athletics Integrity Unit suspended long-distance runners for three years, while the third will not be able to compete for two years.

Alice Jepkemboi Kimutai, winner of the 2021 Porto Marathon, was found in one of the controls traces of testosterone that her body had not produced; Johnstone Kibet Maiyo tested positive for EPO and Mark Otieno, silver medalist at the 2021 World Relay Championship in Poland, was suspended for methasterone, also known as superdrol 1, an anabolic steroid similar to testosterone.