Last week the Confederation of African Football (CAF) made it known that Kenya together with Tanzania and Uganda had put in a bid to host the AFCON 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
This is however not new in the country as this is now the third time that the country has had a chance to host the coveted Africa’s footballing events, but has come short due to political and infrastructural issues.
Let us look back at the previous times that the country has had a chance to host:
1996
Kenya was given the green light to host the AFCON that year but an unfortunate twist and turn of events made the bid get snatched away from the country and awarded to South Africa. This was because the by-then president, the late Daniel Moi, informed the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that the country was not in a position to host the event. This was out of a political reason as the Multi-party elections were around the corner- the event was thought to act as fodder for prominence from the opposition. At the time the opposition Member of Parliament Job Omino was the head of the then Kenya Football Federation (KFF).
2018
Kenya had the chance of hosting the African Nations Championships (CHAN) tournament but failed due to infrastructure issues- there were no stadiums.
The hosting right was awarded to Morocco.
If Kenya wants to host the AFCON, several issues must be addressed. Infrastructure and Political issues must be fine-tuned. The existing national stadiums; Kasarani and Nyayo Stadium must be refurbished to meet the CAF criteria as of right now, that is not the case.
Out of the three countries in the joint bid, Tanzania is the only country with one CAF-standard stadium.
The other countries/federations to have submitted their bids and received feedback include Algeria, Botswana, and Egypt.
