It would be interesting to see how many people actually train seriously for the sprints in Kenya. For sure they have large groups in various locations training for the distance events - but for the other athletic events? I suspect that these numbers are really very low. Maybe Renato Canova has some info here.
Relatively slow times in some qualification meets could be interpreted in many ways. For example: Kenyans just don't train seriously for the sprints (some Germans do, even when knowing they will never ever become world famous with it (by all likelihood...) - which Kenyan can spend some hours every day for something he probably will never ever (again: by all likelihood...) get some good money out of it?). It also could be interpreted that Kenyans (some more from the coast maybe?) in fact have some good (much better as we might think) sprinting talent, when they still can "produce" world class (long) sprinters while not training seriously for it at all. I don't say it must be like I have written here - but it's a possibility.
Kenya's NRs in mens sprinting are (for example) better than Russia's or New Zealand's and probably better as most European countries' (I have not checked).