Last week, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed having received Kenya’s joint bid to host the 2027 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals along with Uganda and Tanzania.
The news sparked excitement across the Kenyan football fraternity with fans eager to watch Africa’s best football talents playing on home soil.
As a veteran in this industry, I refuse to be drawn into this excitement and, instead, I choose to be the devil’s advocate.
This is not the first time Kenya is bidding to host a continental competition, having shown interest in staging the 1996 Afcon, and, recently the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan).
But due to lack of adequate sporting infrastructure, the two competitions ended up being hosted by South Africa and Morocco, respectively.
No quality stadiums
In order to avoid a repeat of the same, the government needs to work round the clock to ensure that Kenya has quality stadiums in place by the time CAF’s inspection committee lands in Nairobi next month.
As we speak, Kenya has no quality stadiums to host a Fifa or CAF football match. This is not only a worrying situation, but also a wake-up call to Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba and his team.
Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa could be excused for Kenya’s failed bid to host the 2018 Chan because he was still learning the ropes.
However, he has since come of age and should guide Namwamba appropriately to deliver the Afcon 2027 to Kenya.
Our neighbours Tanzania are already miles away ahead of us, given their top clubs Yanga and Simba have been filling the 60,000-seater Benjamin Mkapa Stadium during their continental assignments.
It would be a big embarrassment for Kenya to become the stumbling block for East Africa’s successful bid for the tournament.
President William Ruto in his Jamhuri Day remarks last year touched on this bid and I would like to urge him to take it up as his personal project in line with Kenya Kwanza’s pledge to improve sports in this country.
