Explore how doping scandals in Kenya threaten its celebrated athletics legacy, highlighting global reactions, anti-doping measures, and future challenges.

How Doping in Kenya Could Threaten Its Athletic Legacy

Kenya’s long-distance runners are recognized all over the world with many great world records and Olympic medals. Their training in areas of high altitudes, such as the Rift Valley, gives them a natural endurance advantage. The recent claims of doping, however, put this dominance into question. As it turned out, several cases have been prominent wherein licensed medical practitioners were abusing and concealing the whereabouts of doping practices through illegitimate treatments. This has shed aspersions on the celebrated position of the sports athletes hailing from Kenya.

Champions of the Track: Kenya’s Athletic Success Stories

Kenyan athletes have been victorious in several long-distance competitions, including numerous titles in both 5000m and 10000m events. The country has accumulated over 100 medals at the Olympic Games, with roughly 60% of those falling into the domain of distance running. There are several legends, such as Kip Keino, who was awarded a gold medal in the 1968 Olympics, as well as modern stars like Faith Kipyegon, a two-time Olympic champion, who have proved the dominance of Kenya.

Kenya’s success is indeed a pattern. Just look at the odds bookmakers give on Kenyan athletes winning races. For example, at MelBet Kenya, the largest bookmaker in the region, the odds on national athletes always show an expectation of their victory – even if they are not stars but up-and-coming “dark horses.”

The stature and image of Kenya’s athletes were further elevated when Eliud Kipchoge shattered the world record in 2019 by running a marathon in under 2 hours. Kenyan runners regularly win top prizes at major marathons — London, Berlin, and Boston.

A Dark Cloud: The Doping Allegations Against Kenyan Athletes

In only the last year, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) came across 25 doping violations of Kenyan athletes, drawing attention to a very unpleasant trend. The AIU came across a system of forged medical papers and phantom physicians who have been used by athletes to escape detection. A number of Kenyan runners have already been banned, including Eglay Nafuna Nalyani and Betty Lempus, two cases that were apparently linked with the same medical justification.

AIU investigations revealed that these athletes obtained documents from the same institution in Eldoret in respect of the documents where forgeries were solicited. This emerging scandal has seen Kenya almost suffering a ban from international competitions on account of these pervasive doping malpractices. Now Kenyan athletes are in the status of eternal suspects for a long time. This is clear from the fact that WADA is now issuing special reports dedicated to the Kenyan situation.

Understanding Doping: A Brief History and How It Works

Doping in sports finds itself traceable as far back as ancient Greece when some athletes relied upon stimulants, aiming to enhance their energy levels during competitions. In modern times, however, doping involves a platter of drugs that seek to expand endurance, allow greater strength, and enhance the recovery window, thus enabling the athlete to go beyond natural boundaries. These enhancements would most often affect hormones or the concentration of red blood cells in an athlete’s body, which pushes the level of competition. Nonetheless, such aggressive doping comes at a cost: heart malfunctions and an altered endocrine system.

Here are the most common types of chemicals that can be found in the blood of “sports cheaters”:

These substances allow athletes to train harder, recover faster, and perform successfully during competitions.

Where Doping Lurks: High-Risk Sports and Common Substances

Doping tendencies are higher in endurance-based sports as well as strength-based sports and sports that require rapid recovery, and this can be attributed to the fact that the athletes want any edge they can get their hands on. Endurance disciplines like cycling, running, or cross-country skiing, for instance, have higher abuse of erythropoietin (EPO) to enhance endurance. Body-building, weightlifting, and other power-based sports most often involve the use of anabolic steroids to help increase muscle mass.

As research shows, these are the top 4 sports where medical supervision has to be most diligent today:

• Track and Field
• Cycling
• Weightlifting
• Swimming

The sports are characterized by a lot of doping cases owing to the nature of their work. In endurance sports, it is common for athletes to develop stimulants towards their long distances and journeys without a break, while power athletes seek out growth hormone in order to strengthen themselves and recover more rapidly.

Kenya’s Anti-Doping Battle: Funding, Policies, and Challenges

In anticipation of the Rio 2016 Games, the Kenyan government increased their anti doping activities and set aside five million dollars towards this effort noting the need to enhance its anti-doping campaigns. In 2022, the commitment amounted to about $25 million for five years, as the government raised its funds further than intended to improve investigations targeting testing and education about doping. While the funds were accruing, Kenya has also banned the practice of doping, punishable by a maximum of three years of imprisonment in case of violation.

This commitment includes:

• Increased anti-doping tests
• Athlete educational programs
• Stricter penalties for violations
• Collaboration with global agencies

Even with these measures in place, Kenya continues to experience the negative impacts of doping as some networks are still able to evade authorities. Fraud becomes organized, with groups profiting from these kinds of activities about cover-ups to doping. There are hypotheses that doping may be imposed on athletes in order to earn money from bets on bookmaker sites such as melbet.ng app, similar to what happens with fixed matches in team sports.

Impact on Kenya’s Global Reputation: The Risk of Losing Credibility

Ever since 2011, the world of professionals has witnessed 40 Kenyan athletes who have received bans due to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This paints a bad picture of the renege of international congestions that have been formed for the standardization of sports activities and fair play. At the end of the year 2022, WADA threatened to suspend the Kenyan Federation, which would have also led to Kenya being disqualified from participating in all athletics events. There were rumors that even bookmakers like MelBet betting companies and others would stop accepting bets on Kenyan athletes due to the risk of constant bet failures due to disqualifications.

Events of great magnitude such as World and Olympic events have very rigid anti-doping measures, and due to the continued violations of rules by Kenyan athletes, raise eyebrows amongst the sports fraternity. The discovery of large-scale schemes involving fraudulent medical records and the orchestration of cover-ups has further dented Kenya’s reputation.

Conclusion: Can Kenya Protect Its Legacy?

Despite these setbacks, both the government of Kenya and the authorities responsible for athletics are on a different path, as there has been a rise in funds, training, and surveillance devoted to tackling optimistically the foul practice. Criminalizing doping practices provides for further imposition of fearless and overwhelming consequences, hence acting as a barrier against temptations to carry out the behavior. Athletic bodies like WADA are doing it together with Kenyan officials who are devising ways of earning the lost faith back. Kenya’s impeccable performances in athletics blend well with the history of concern raised due to doping, as Kenyans are among the most recorded sprint stars globally.