SCANDAL: 20 Kenyan Athletes Found Guilty of Age Cheating

A damning investigation has unmasked 20 Kenyan international athletes who doctored their ages to gain unfair advantage in competitions, exposing a web of deceit that stretches from school compounds to the highest levels of athletics.

The shocking revelation by Athletics Kenya and World Athletics has sent tremors through the country’s athletics fraternity, with some of the guilty parties being medallists from prestigious global championships who now face the grim prospect of being stripped of their hard-won laurels.

Joseph Ilovi, secretary of the AK Youth and Development Committee, dropped the bombshell that out of 60 athletes investigated in a probe dating back to 2016, only 25 have been cleared while 20 were found to have falsified their birth documents. Another 15 cases remain under investigation, hanging like a sword of Damocles over their careers.

“While we’ve stopped those found guilty from competing locally, we are waiting for World Athletics to advise us on how to proceed,” Ilovi disclosed, revealing that the suspended athletes are now in limbo, unable to compete as investigations continue.

The scandal has cast a dark shadow over Kenya’s athletics glory, with four of the guilty parties being medallists from the 2021 World Under-20 Athletics Championships. Even more troubling, fresh cases have emerged from the recently concluded 2025 Africa Athletics Under-20 and Under-18 Championships in Nigeria.

What makes this scandal particularly explosive is the revelation that teachers and coaches at high school level manipulated athletes’ ages without parental consent, driven by the hunger for championship glory and the lucrative scholarships that follow.

“The tricky part is that most of those found to have falsified their ages are now competing at a senior level, with some having secured scholarships to study at colleges in the US,” Ilovi revealed, exposing how the fraud has created a complicated situation where cheaters are now reaping rewards at the highest levels.

The investigation has identified ten schools that engaged in age manipulation and falsification of birth documents. Athletics Kenya is now seeking an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Education to discuss appropriate punishments for these institutions that betrayed the trust of young athletes and their families.

“That is why some athletes have different birth certificates and passports,” Ilovi explained, revealing the extent of document forgery that has enabled the scam to flourish unchecked for years.

When World Athletics president Sebastian Coe toured Kenya in March last year, he issued a stern warning that would now haunt the guilty athletes. He declared that those found guilty of age cheating would be stripped of their titles and medals and could face severe bans similar to doping violations.

The investigation was carried out through collaboration between Athletics Kenya, World Athletics, immigration department officers and the civil registry, painting a picture of a sophisticated operation to root out the cheats.

But Kenya is not alone in this scandal. Ilovi revealed that World Athletics has Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia on its radar for age cheating. The Ethiopian case is particularly jaw-dropping. At this year’s World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Florida, USA, Ethiopia could only field one male athlete and three female athletes in the under-20 categories after most of their athletes were denied visas due to age cheating concerns.

In a stunning revelation that exposes the scale of the problem in Ethiopia, of the 76 athletes who took part in their national trials for the 2025 Africa Athletics Under-20 and Under-18 Championships in Nigeria, only 22 were found to be the correct age. This means over 70 per cent were overage, a figure that has sent shockwaves through the athletics world.

During Coe’s visit, Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei cautioned that local collaborators would face legal consequences. He warned that the cancer of age cheating was becoming as serious as doping, with coaches, athletes, parents, schools, teachers and some key officials potentially involved in the conspiracy.

Tuwei noted that cases of birth certificates, passports and other documents being falsified were increasing at an alarming rate, particularly in under-20 events, and that this trend was fast becoming a serious concern that could rival the doping crisis that has already tainted Kenya’s athletics reputation.

“Some athletes provided inconsistent birth dates, with some cases going back eight years. Even top athletes are under scrutiny,” revealed Barnaba Korir, AK’s Director of Youth Development, in an earlier interview, showing that the fraud has been systematic and long-running.

World Athletics has put Kenya on notice that the country’s participation in the World Athletics U20 Championships, scheduled to take place from August 5 to 9 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA, will be under heavy scrutiny. Any hint of further age cheating could see Kenya’s participation restricted or even banned.

Athletics Kenya dropped four athletes who had falsified their ages from Team Kenya for the 2024 World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Peru, a move that was seen as a first step in cleaning up the sport but which now appears to have been just the tip of the iceberg.

The scandal threatens to further tarnish Kenya’s already battered reputation in global athletics. The country has over 100 athletes serving doping-related suspensions on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s Global List of Ineligible Persons, and now faces a second front in the battle for integrity.

“Neither Athletics Kenya nor the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya have rules governing age cheating,” Ilovi admitted, exposing a gaping hole in the regulatory framework that has allowed the vice to flourish. The local body has provisionally suspended the affected athletes but is powerless to impose final sanctions, which must come from World Athletics.

“We shall only publish their names the moment World Athletics announces what should be done,” Ilovi said, leaving the public in suspense about the identities of the cheats who have brought shame to Kenyan athletics.

The looming question now is what punishment World Athletics will hand down to the 20 athletes. With Coe having promised that medals would be stripped and performances nullified, the guilty parties face the prospect of seeing years of their athletic achievements wiped out in an instant.

For the young athletes who competed fairly and lost to these cheats, the scandal represents a profound injustice. They were robbed of medals, scholarships and opportunities by athletes who were essentially adults competing against children.

As Athletics Kenya prepares for its crucial meeting with the Ministry of Education, all eyes are on what consequences will befall the ten schools that enabled this fraud. Will teachers and coaches face criminal charges for document forgery? Will schools be banned from competitions? The answers will determine whether Kenya is serious about rooting out this cancer from its athletics system.

World Athletics has established working groups specifically to handle age cheating and results manipulation, signaling that the global body is treating this as seriously as doping. The organization is also exploring the use of artificial intelligence and advanced medical technology, including MRI scans similar to those used by FIFA in football, to detect age fraud more effectively.

The scandal comes at a critical time for Kenyan athletics. With the sport already reeling from the doping crisis and facing questions about its integrity on the world stage, the age cheating revelations represent another devastating blow to the country’s reputation as an athletics powerhouse.

As the investigation continues and World Athletics prepares to announce its sanctions, one thing is clear: Kenyan athletics is at a crossroads. The choices made now will determine whether the country can restore trust in its systems and ensure that future competitions are fair, or whether it will sink deeper into a morass of scandals that could see it isolated from international competition.

For the 20 athletes found guilty, their dreams of athletic glory have turned into a nightmare. For the young athletes they cheated, justice may finally be at hand. And for Kenyan athletics as a whole, this is a moment of reckoning that cannot be ignored.