When Joe Sang, the managing director at the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is not steering a billion-dollar corporation to profititability, he is either running a world major marathon across oceans, teeing off at the Karen Country Club — he is a single handicap — or sweating it out at the gym. All of which, he says, have one common denominator: discipline.
Although he is a CEO, Sang does not have an elevator dedicated to him at his office at Nairobi's Kenpipe Plaza. He always takes the stairs to the sixth-floor corner office. Twice or three times a week, he goes to the gym in the same building, using his lunch break for a quick but targeted workout session.
“I try to move my body as much as I can, and taking the stairs is one way to remain active. In the gym, I work out different parts of the body on different days. My body, I am told, needs precision in training. I am not young anymore, haha! So, I don’t just go to the gym, I leave my office knowing for example, today is leg day, and that is what I will do.”
Sang thinks of his fitness the same way he thinks about the companies he has led for the last two and a half decades.
“Running, to me, is about being accountable, to my health, to my body and to the goals I have set in my fitness journey. Same with leading a company like KPC: the most valuable currency one can have is accountability to the many stakeholders we have.”
Fitness enthusiast
Nothing signals that Sang is a fitness enthusiast more than his wrists. “This on my right is an Apple Watch, which helps me record my workouts and sporting activities. This other one is called a Whoop fitness tracker, gifted to me by a friend. It monitors my sleep and rest time. Sleep is an important part of recovery. Mine is a very busy life and, somewhere along the line, I noticed that if I don’t prioritise rest, and more specifically sleep, it affects my productivity.”
He wears the two devices under the cuffs of a crisp white shirt. Sang tries, as much as he can, to sleep for at least six hours every day. When he can’t, due to his busy schedule, he compensates by sleeping in over the weekends and free days.
“Somehow, the hours balance. But it has to be intentional, I must say. Sleep is not a waste of time. It is, on the contrary, an optimisation of time.”
He started running regularly about 10 years ago for fitness. “Every chance I got, I would run, in Karura Forest with friends, on the road, when I travelled, everywhere and anywhere.” The longest run he completed was 21km. However, at the start of 2024, he decided to stretch himself a little further.
Kenya Pipeline MD Joe Sang (in black) during a routine morning run on May 11, 2024 in Karen.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
As a boy, Sang ran not fewer than four times a day to and from school, covering about eight kilometres. Running, therefore, he notes, is an activity deeply embedded in his being.
“I noticed that children back in the village still do the same, and it got to me. How can I help them go through school more easily? I wanted my running to mean more. It is true, it has offered me great health benefits, but could there be more?”
His friends and peers encouraged him to set up the Joe Sang Foundation, through which he raises funds to support the education of needy children.
Marathon journey
Sang began his World Marathon Majors journey by participating in the 2024 Chicago Marathon, crossing the finish line at three hours seven minutes. A year later, on September 21, 2025, he lined up for the 51st edition of the Berlin Marathon, shaving seven minutes off his Chicago time to finish in 3:00:57.
“At the peak of my training my alarm goes off at 3.45am and we leave the house at 4.15am at least three times a week. My team and I will be on the road for about two hours then I go back home to get ready and be in the office before 8am.”
His mileage build-up is gradual.
“I don’t just go straight to running long distances. I start with shorter ones like 5km, then 10km, 21km, and so on.”
After six or eight weeks, depending on how his body feels, he pushes to 30–35km. Then, before running a major, he does his longest runs of the season.
“As the marathon approaches, I push further to test my readiness for the main event. It is impossible to wake up and run 42km if your longest run is 21km. You must always test your limits before fully committing.”
The reason for his incremental pace is to avoid burnout. “It is pointless to run all that before the marathon and then fail at the main event.”
His diet forms an integral part of his training. “Weeks before the marathon, I cut out starch completely. This helps in depleting glycogen stores.” Two or three days before the race, he reintroduces carbohydrates. “Carbo-loading helps in saturating the muscles with energy for race day.”
He’s quick to add that he does not adhere to a specialised diet. “I just eat normal Kenyan meals. I struggle sometimes with the discipline of spacing my meals because of duty calls. Sometimes I am in the office until 9pm. When I get home to have my last meal of the day, it is past the time a nutritionist would recommend. I try to be disciplined with the portions, though.”
Leadership lessons
There is no much distinction between his leadership style at KPC and his fitness regime. He describes running as “a big attribution in terms of being a leader.” The discipline of waking up at 4 am to train has taught him accountability.
“People learn to see what a leader does not through his speech, but through action.”
He applies this principle at Kenya Pipeline. “This discipline has pushed me to ensuring that by the time I leave the office, I have completed all the work accrued to me during the day.”
At about 11am on a Monday, when we sit for this interview, Mr Sang shows me two empty in-trays as evidence that he cleared his desk before leaving the office the previous week.
“I have a 12.30pm flight today and I intend to have cleared all the incoming work by then.”
Training has also shaped his leadership resilience. “In a marathon, you get to a point where your body completely rebels, but because of the bigger calling that pushes you, you summon your inner strength,” he says, comparing this to corporate life.
“There are moments you want to give up as a leader, but the endurance I have learned from training helps me push through difficult stakeholders, regulators and pressure.”
Kenya Pipeline Company Managing Director Joe Sang in action during the Kenya Corporates Golf Challenge at Thika Greens Golf Resort on June 7, 2025.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
Wellness culture
Fitness has also made him more accessible to his colleagues at KPC. “My colleagues don’t see me as the MD — they refer to me as Joe — not the very formal titles common with leaders. We run the treadmill at our gym together,” he says.
This openness he explains, allows junior and senior employees to meet him as an equal. He adds that exercise improves mental clarity and productivity.
“When I come out of the gym, the first three hours at my desk are very different from the days when I haven’t exercised.”
Sang argues that by creating a culture of wellness at the company, the team has become “more agile,” and he directly links the firm’s performance to this shift.
“We’ve created an environment of trust. Employees are free and they do their best. Recently, during a discussion with a company doctor, we realised that medical expenses for our employees have gone down significantly.”
Golfing
Golf offers a gentler but equally meaningful balance to the intensity of running and gym work.
“It is one sport you can actually, God willing, play until you’re 90,” he says. As he grows older, it provides the steady cardio he needs. “It’s one sport I’ve seen many old men play.”
Beyond physical conditioning, the sport gives him a long, consistent stretches of movement, reflection and outdoor time. “Golf gives me the freedom to be with my thoughts.”
