National 400 metres hurdles champion, Wiseman Were, and former Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo, are among local sportsmen and women who have been provisionally suspended for varying doping offences.
Were and marathoner Jeptoo are among 27 local athletes also drawn from basketball, volleyball and football who have been flagged mainly for whereabouts failure since August, last year.
The 28-year-old Were, who is also the 2024 Africa Military Games 400m champion and 4x400m silver medallist, has been flagged down by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) for whereabouts failure.
The Kenya Defence Forces champion and four-time Kip Keino Classic 400m hurdles champion will not be allowed to compete until his case is heard and determined. An athlete is flagged down for whereabouts failure after missing a doping test three times in a year.
Were’s suspension comes at a time when his hurdles career is picking up. He made his maiden appearance at the Olympic Games in August 2024 in Paris, where he reached the semi-finals.
Two months later, Were won gold in 400m hurdles, and silver in 4x400m in Africa Military Games in Abuja, Nigeria. He finished fourth in 400m hurdles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
He also claimed bronze in 4x400m at the same Games. He won 400m hurdles in 2025 Kip Keino Classic in a new meeting record of personal best of 48.34, erasing his previous time of 48.57 from 2024. Adak has suspended the 45-year-old Jeptoo for the presence of prohibited anabolic androgenic steroids.
Jeptoo is the most successful Kenyan woman in the World Marathon Majors to have been sanctioned for doping violations. She won Boston Marathon title in 2006, 2013 and in 2014 in a course record time of 2hours,18 minutes and 57 seconds. She also won Chicago Marathon in 2013 and 2014.
Stripped of marathon titles
Her ‘A’ sample which she had provided in Kenya two weeks before winning in Chicago turned positive for Erythropoietin (EPO).
Athletics Kenya banned her for two years, but she appealed against the ban. World Athletics indicated that the ban was too lenient. Months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport doubled the period of her ban to four years.
Jeptoo, who was stripped of 2014 Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon titles, resumed running in 2022.
Kenya Police FC midfielder Charles Ouma is among five footballers suspended on December 23, 2025 for whereabouts failures. Other footballers sanctioned are Wilson Kamau Ndungu (formerly of Murang’a Seal), John Collins Njuguna, and Benson Ochieng Oluoch, all of Nairobi United.
Footballer Rooney Onyango, who currently plays for Norwegian club Sogndal, was flagged for whereabouts failure on February 12, this year.
Local basketball players Christine Akinyi and Christine Mwangale were flagged for whereabouts failure on December 23, 2025 alongside volleyballer Loice Simiyu Masitsa.
The 2024 national 110m hurdles champion Michael Musyoka who competes for Kenya Defence Forces has also been suspended for whereabouts failures alongside 2024 Africa Military Games 5,000m champion, Bravin Kosgei Kiptoo, who is also the 2019 Africa Under-20 10,000m champion.
Two-time Paris Marathon champion Paul Lonyangata, who was banned for 19 months in September 2022 for using prohibited substance Furosemide, has again been suspended with effect from February 12 for whereabouts failure.
USA-based athlete Festus Lagat, who has been flagged for whereabouts failure on the day he won Paris Indoor Meeting on February 19 this year.
Athlete Alfred Kipkemoi Cheruiyot has been suspended for the presence of prohibited hormone and metabolic modulators/ trimetazidine on January 23, this year.
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