Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has said the country is keen to enter a clean team to Tokyo 2020, which is due to take place from July 24 to August 9.

"Kenya has been known to compete clean, we must protect that reputation," Mohamed was reported as saying by Xinhua.

"We cannot risk the future of our young athletes. 

"The Ministry of Sport is working on criminalising doping, and the whole athlete entourage will be taken to task."

Mohamed's words come despite the fact that a total of nearly 50 Kenyan athletes, including the women's 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong and three-time world 1,500 metres winner Asbel Kiprop, are currently banned from the sport of athletics.

This year has hardly started any better, with two high-profile athletes provisionally suspended already. 

Former world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang and 2014 world junior 800m champion Alfred Kipketer are both facing bans of up to four years for missing out-of-competition drugs tests.

Athletics Kenya President Jackson Tuwei claimed earlier this month that the suspension of so many of the nation's top runners for doping proves they are taking the problem seriously and are on their way to solving it. 

He also announced that the national governing body has drafted a bill to Kenya's Ministry of Sports to be taken to Parliament in order to criminalise doping – and that any athlete banned for drug-related offences will not be allowed to represent the country again.

There have been calls for Kenya, like Russia, to be banned from international competition because of the high number of doping cases from the nation.

Tuwei, though, claimed the situation was different because they were actively involved in working with the Athletics Integrity Unit and Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya to try to tackle the problem. 

Meanwhile, the Daily Nation reports that the Kenyan Government wants the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) to scale down its budget for Tokyo 2020, especially on funds allotted for the qualifying process.

Prior to releasing the funds to the National Federations (NFs) that are yet to qualify their athletes, Mohamed said the Government will evaluate and regulate.

"I urge federations to present funding requests to the Ministry in time to ensure processing during the qualifying rounds," she said.

The move comes days after Mohamed revealed that she will review the Tokyo 2020 Steering Committee before publishing a new one based on the disciplines that will have qualified.

With a view to scaling down the budgets for qualifications, NOCK treasurer Anthony Kariuki said the organisation will now engage the NFs as soon as possible.

"The largest item in the budget was the qualification procedure where the Government agreed to assist," he was reported as saying by the Daily Nation.

"We are going to re-look at the budget and rationalise it after engaging the federations. 

"I believe we can work something out with them."

In November, the NOCK General Assembly approved a KES600 million (£4.6 million/$6 million/€5.4 million) budget for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

NOCK President Paul Tergat said that KES250million (£1.9 million/$2.5 million/€2.3 million) would go towards preparations and qualification for the event.

He and Mohamed are optimistic that Kenya will hit its target and have more than 100 athletes qualified for Tokyo 2020, with 80 having already done so.

The country had 89 athletes – 47 men and 42 women – at the Rio 2016 Olympics, winning 13 medals – six golds, six silvers and one bronze.