In another blow to Kenya’s rapidly crumbling reputation as a middle- and long-distance powerhouse, Diana Kipyokei, winner of the 2021 Boston Marathon, has been banned for six years for using triamcinolone, a banned substance. Her compatriot Purity Rionoripo, a former winner of the Lisbon Marathon and the Copenhagen Half Marathon, was handed a five-year ban. Kipyokei and Rionoripo join a growing number of athletes from this African nation who have been caught cheating.
How bad is the doping menace in Kenya?
Kenya has been in the top category (A) of the World Anti-Doping Association’s (WADA) compliance watch list since February 2016. Kenya was put on the watch list after more than 40 Kenyan athletes tested positive for banned substances between the 2012 London Olympics and 2016.
Although the majority of athletes who failed dope tests were from the lower rungs, some big names were also caught in the net.
Rita Jeptoo, three-time winner of the Boston Marathon, tested positive for EPO (erythropoietin), which increases the production of red blood cells, which in turn helps carry more oxygen to the muscles and increases endurance.
In 2019, 2016 Olympics marathon champion Jemima Sumgong had her ban increased to eight years after she claimed he was given EPO by an unqualified person who posed as a doctor at a hospital when a strike was on.
Three-time World and Olympic champion in the men’s 1500 m, Asbel Kiprop (30) has been banned for four years for a doping violation.
In addition to Kipyokei and Rionoripo, Kenyan sprinter Mark Otieno was also banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) earlier this week. In all, 55 Kenyans are currently on the AIU’s ineligible athletes list. This year alone 20 Kenyan athletes, most of them marathon runners, have fallen foul of anti-doping rules.
Could Kenya be banned from international competitions?
For some time, there was genuine fear in Kenya that World Athletics could slap a ban on the country similar to the one that the Russians have faced. That would make their participation in next year’s World Championships in Budapest and the 2024 Olympics in Paris uncertain. Last month, the Kenyan sports ministry in a statement that the “Government is taking firm measures to protect and uphold the integrity of athletics.”
If Kenya had been banned, even its athletes who were deemed to be clean would not have been allowed to participate under their nation’s flag in the World Championships and the Olympics. However, following talks between World Athletics president Sebastian Coe and Kenya’s Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba, Kenya escaped a ban.
Kenya has said that it would spend $25 million over five years to increase the number of anti-doping officers, to improve investigation into suspected doping rings, and also for the education of athletes. The AIU will also work with the Kenyan government to clean up the doping mess in the country.
“I’m really delighted because all the stakeholders that matter, both domestically and internationally, are now aligned to do everything we can to resolve this issue,” Coe said.
One of the main reasons why Kenya wasn’t banned like Russia is that there was no evidence of state-sponsored doping. “They weren’t going to be banned because unlike the Russian situation, which we are dealing with for the past seven years, there is no obvious evidence that this is state-sponsored or state-secured,” Coe told BBC South Africa.
So what does Kenya plan to do to stop doping?
Kenya’s sports minister Ababu Namwamba told BBC South Africa that the country’s anti-doping law is not “sufficiently loaded to deal with this challenge with the force required”. Namwaba spoke of a complex underground syndicate which supplied banned performance-enhancing substances to Kenyan athletes.
“It involved agencies, coaches and doctors so it will need multiple instruments to be deployed to dismantle that syndicate. I believe we need to criminalise doping and elevate the handling of doping substances to the same level as narcotics. So in the same way we deal with drug traffickers, we should deal similarly with those engaged in this practice,” Namwamba said.
How have Kenyan athletes fared as the doping scandal has unfolded?
In the World Athletics Championships held in Oregon earlier this year, Kenya won 10 medals (2 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze) and finished fourth in the medals tally behind the US, Ethiopia, and Jamaica. In 2005, Kenya finished in 1st place with 16 medals, and was placed second with 11 medals in 2017 and 2019.
At the 2020 Olympic Games, Kenya won 10 medals on the track, including four gold. In the previous edition, in 2016 in Rio, Kenya’s tally was 13, including 6 gold. This also included a silver by Julius Yego in the men’s javelin throw.
However, the slight drop in medal count can’t be attributed only to athletes being banned because of doping. Some Kenyan athletes represent other countries. For example, Kenyan-born Ruth Jebet (3,000 metre steeplechase) and Eunice Jepkirui (women’s marathon) have won Olympic medals for Bahrain.
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