He defeated marathoner Geoffrey Mutai to win the Discovery Kenya Cross Country at the start of 2012. Despite being the pre-race favourite for the Berlin Half Marathon, he was beaten into second place by the lesser-known Denis Koech, although he ran a personal best time of 59:15 minutes. He secured his first place on the Kenyan Olympic team at the 2012 Prefontaine Classic, winning the 10,000 m trial race with a personal best of 27:01.98 minutes. Despite this strong performance, he failed to finish the distance when it came to the 2012 Olympic 10,000 metres final.