The IAAF has rejected Kenya Athletics chief executive officer Isaac Mwangi's appeal against his provisionally suspension for allegedly attempting to bribe two athletes.

Mwangi was suspended for 180 days in February following claims that he requested payments from Kenyan runners Joy Sakari and Francisca Koki Manunga in order to reduce bans which were imposed on the duo for failing drugs tests.

The Kenya Athletics CEO denied any wrongdoing and vowed to clear his name, but the IAAF Ethics Board said his suspension will not be lifted.

The IAAF Ethics Board released a lengthy statement on Friday, which said: "We bear in mind on the one hand the risk that the Investigator may recommend charges which may in the fullness of time be proven, in which case the lifting of the suspension would be shown to have been ill judged and someone who had no business being CEO of a major athletics federation would have wrongly continued in office.

"We bear in mind on the other hand the risk that no charges are brought, or, if brought are dismissed in which case Mr Mwangi will, if he remains suspended, have suffered unnecessary loss of office. 

"In our judgement the former risk outweighs the latter. We note, in any event that, given the precautionary nature of the suspension, even if no charges were ultimately brought, or charges were brought but not proven, this would not of itself mean that the provisional suspension should not have been imposed, provided that it was correctly imposed by reference to the relevant principles at the outset.

"In summary the position, as far as the measuring stick of the integrity of sport is concerned, has not changed since the interim suspension was itself imposed. Furthermore any damage to Mr Mwangi's reputation is mitigated by our restatement of the precept that he continues to enjoy the presumption of innocence unless and until an EB [Ethics Board] disciplinary panel were to find him guilty of a breach of the Code.

"For all those reasons Mr Mwangi's challenge to his provisional suspension is dismissed."

The ruling comes a day after Kenya was given until May 2 to be prove it is compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code after failing to meet another deadline.