Kibiwott Kandie, a Kenyan native of Baringo County, would have never thought he would become the third fastest half-marathon runner in history. Raised by a farmer mother and a father who worked for the Ministry of Water, Kandie walked 7 kilometers to school every day. It’s from those humble roots that he ended up with a historic finish in the 2020 Valencia Half Marathon, where he became the first athlete to break the 58-minute mark. But six years later, all of his achievements have been stained as the Kenyan faces a ban for anti-doping rule violations.

On June 25, the Athletics Integrity Unit released a statement saying: “Former half marathon world record-holder and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Kibiwott Kandie, has been banned for seven years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after admitting to two Anti-Doping Rule Violations, a refusal to submit to sample collection and tampering with the doping control process.”

He will remain ineligible until March 13, 2032, from the date of his provisional suspension (March 14, 2025). This period effectively ends the prime years of his competitive career.

The case began on March 1, 2025, when DCO and a chaperone visited Kandie’s residence in Kenya unannounced to conduct an out-of-competition test. Kandie signed the electronic doping control form, but then he started making back-to-back phone calls.

Several calls later, Kandie told the officer he had to leave right away. He said he had to travel 2 hours to Eldoret because he had an “important payment to make to National Construction Authority officers who were about to close down his construction site.” But DCO told Kandie that he would face the same consequences as if he tested positive, which Kandie acknowledged prior to leaving his home by car. So, the AIU provisionally suspended Kandie on March 14, 2025. But the investigation didn’t end there.

Phone records later showed that the calls Kandie made during the missed test were not to construction officials, but to a nurse based in Eldoret. Investigators, working with the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya, also found 11 payments from Kandie to her over the past year. He later claimed the nurse provided basic household items and occasionally checked his haemoglobin, and that the calls were to arrange meetings. The situation escalated further when he submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment document from Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority.

The document was meant to help in his justification of the need to visit the site in Eldoret on March 1. The AIU contacted NEMA, but the officials at NEMA informed that the reference number was not in their system. Kandie’s name was not on their records, and there was no scheduled inspection at the location on the day they were checking. NEMA concluded that the certificate was, in fact, “not genuine and deemed to be invalid”.

Based on the results, a tampering charge was imposed by AIU on 6th May 2026. The initial penalty was to be eight years, but he accepted the ban, and it was reduced by one year. This setback came just three months after another Kenyan athlete, the New York City Marathon winner, got banned.

Another Kenyan runner faces a lengthy suspension

In March 2026, Albert Korir was suspended for 5 years after his out-of-competition test in Kenya came back positive. The 31-year-old had three urine and blood samples taken on Oct. 3, 13, and 21 analysed at the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya and a WADA-accredited laboratory in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

Korir was originally set to serve 4 years, but has been extended to 6 due to investigators’ findings that the banned substance was used more than once. His penalty was later decreased to five years after he confessed to the violation within four days of being notified.

Under the ruling, all of Korir’s results from October 3, 2025, were disqualified. This included his third-place finish at the 2025 New York City Marathon, where he ran 2:08:57 and earned $40,000 in prize money. He is barred from track until January 7, 2031

As Kenyan athletes have continued to dominate the world’s distance-running scene, the two cases have added to the pressure on Kenya’s sports sector, which has seen numerous anti-doping violations in recent years.