Lilian Kasait competes in women's 10km race during the AK Cross Country Championships at Post Grounds. [Dennis Okeyo]

And with the number keep on rising, Korir says they are talking with the parliament and other relevant bodies to enact a law that will criminalise doping.

"Of course we have discussions now with ADAK, National Olympics Committee of Kenya and AK to see if the new members of parliament can enact a bill that will allow doping to be criminalised," he said.

"But then, it will not go the way of AIU or WADA, it has to go through an anti-narcotics framework so that an athlete who has been found to abuse EPO can be treated like having used 'hard drugs'. By doing so, an athlete can be taken to court and charged accordingly.

"Some athletes are trying to beat the system. Because of the economic situation we have in this country some of them are trying to see if they can run, take the risk and if they are caught fine, if they are not caught they escape."

He continued: "And if they are caught, they say okay, I have won some money maybe Sh3m-Sh4m then of course they will accept to be penalised because it will be reduced by one year. I think now it's necessary for the federation to discuss with AIU so that the penalty of an athlete who has been found to have used EPO and other injectable drugs cannot be reduced. Actually, it should be increased.

"If an athlete has been found to have been doped, then that athlete should give information as to where they received the drugs. If they don't give proper information, then the penalty should be doubled."

Recently, two of the country's top marathoners - Lawrence Cherono and Philemon Kacheran were provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned substances, as they prepared to fly the Kenyan flag at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games respectively.