Athletics Integrity Unit officials believe the east African nation risks not being asked to host international events unless it cleans up its act.

Kenya has gone from conducting 400 anti-doping tests a year to 4000, the Athletics Integrity Unit told media in Tokyo on Thursday, but the east African nation needs to improve otherwise it will risk not being invited to stage international events.

Kenya has seen an alarming number of its athletes receive anti-doping bans in recent years, with one of the most high profile being world marathon record-holder Ruth Chepngetich, leading for some fans to call for the country to be banned from international athletics.

“There has been a lot of effort put into anti-doping in Kenya,” says AIU chair David Howman. “Kenya has grown from an organisation which conducted 400 tests a year to one that's now conducting 4000 tests a year. So from the point of view of operational improvement and increase, they’ve done very well.

“If they've failed in a couple of areas, there's now an opportunity for them to smarten up and remedy those things as soon as possible. Because if they're not remedied, Kenya will not be asked to host any international events.”

Indeed, the World Anti-Doping Agency last week declared the Kenyan National Anti-Doping Organisation non-compliant with its global code. The news comes as a blow to Kenya’s ambition to stage the 2029 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi.

Howman added: “We would be very supportive of approach from the government to hasten recovery that they need to address in the specific areas.

“The athletes, we see them out on the track out here, are the pinnacle of in our sport in terms of professionalism and performance. For the integrity of our sport, we need the anti -doping agencies to be at that level. We make no apologies, that's what we expect as a sport.”

There are often cries from fans for the coaches to be banned if their athletes test positive. But the AIU says that sometimes coaches act as whistleblowers, telling the anti-doping agencies that their athlete is cheating.

The AIU also has an ongoing problem of “jurisdiction” over a coach. If they operate outside of the athletics governing bodies, the AIU finds it difficult to intervene.

Brett Clothier, head of the AIU, says that more testing in Kenya is resulting in more drug bans: “There are more cases than before because there's way more testing. We have more cases, but less doping. There's more of a deterrence. People are getting caught.

“There's absolutely less doping today than there was five years ago. But there's still a lot of doping in Kenya. No question about that. There's a long way to go. We have to keep working at it and the Kenyan authorities can't take their foot off the pedal.”

Setting a good example for Kenyan athletes is Sabastian Sawe, who has offered to undergo multiple anti-doping tests ahead of this weekend’s Berlin Marathon. His sponsor, Adidas, is supporting the initiative and the AIU say they applaud the idea.

Howman said: “He wanted to send a message about his own personal integrity and the fact that not all Kenyan athletes are dopers. He wanted to make that message clear to the public.

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“Importantly for us, This is intended to be the first step in a more sustainable, long -term effort.  So we're really pleased that an athlete of his calibre, his management team and sponsor, could be part of the solution to the doping issues in the sport.