Raila says Kenya will participate in AFCON under his regime

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said that he will make sure the national team Harambeee Stars qualifies for the Africa Cup of Nations should he be elected the President of Kenya in the upcoming August elections.

Raila who also double up as the Patron of record Kenya Premier League champions Gor Mahia FC was speaking while congratulating Senegal after clinching the rescheduled 2021 AFCON finals held in Cameroon.

“Congratulations Senegal on winning AFCON2 021.I promise the legion of Kenyan soccer fans that under my administration Harambee stars will be at the next continental showpiece. We’ll invest in football starting with grassroots/mtaani and community clubs” noted Odinga.

Kenya’s aspirations of a second successive Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) appearance turned from cautious optimism into despair despite finishing their qualifying campaign on a high, picking up four points from their last two matches.

Stars who were making their first appearance in the finals in 2019 after a 15-year wait, narrowly failed to make it past the group stages in Egypt after finishing third in a pool won by Algeria, while Africa’s top-ranked side Senegal came second.

Thanks to a robust youth development programme and visionary football administrators, Harambee Stars qualified for Afcon in the late 80s and early 90s when it was a more competitive eight-team tournament.

Kenya qualified for Afcon for the first time in 1972 alongside Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, hosts Morocco, Algeria and Zaire.

When Confederation of African Football [CAF] expanded the competition to 12 teams starting with the 1992 edition in Senegal, Kenya was still sitting among Africa’s elite footballing nations, and qualified directly for the tournament alongside Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria, hosts Senegal, Zaire and Zambia.

The East African nation returned to the 16-team edition in Tunisia in 2004 but would miss the next six editions till the 2019 tournament in Egypt.

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