The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will send an eight-man inspection team led by second vice president Constant Omari for a final assessment of the country’s preparedness for next year’s Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) on Monday, September 11.
This is after the initial inspection tour which had been set for Thursday, September 7 aborted due to what was reported as ‘the country’s political situation’.
“The CAF team will arrive on Monday, September 11 and will be here all through to September 18. It will be led by Omari and will also include departmental heads who will come in to assess whether all aspects of the tournament are okay,” FKF communications director Barry Otieno told Capital Sport.
Omari was in the country on Monday where he held a closed door meeting with the Minister of Sports Hassan Wario, the Local Organizing Committee and other government officials.
His visit was to inquire whether or not the current political situation brought about by last week’s Supreme Court ruling on a repeat of the Presidential Elections would in any way affect the preparations towards the tournament.
The visit will be monumental as whatever the inspection team will have collected by the end of their tour will have a huge impact on CAF’s decision on September 23 during their Executive Committee meeting in Accra, Ghana.
Kenya’s biggest fight with CAF in as far as the tournament is concerned rotates around infrastructure. Only Moi International Sports Center Kasarani meets the most minimum of requirements but still some amount of work needs to be put in.
On Thursday, Sports Principle Secretary Peter Kaberia confirmed that a total of Sh4.8bn will be used to ensure all stadia are ready with Kipchoge Keino in Eldoret, Kinoru in Meru and Nyayo in Nairobi fighting to beat the November deadline to be ready.
“I am confident we will host CHAN. We can’t be overconfident but I know we can convince them that we will be ready. We are not ready now, let’s be honest, but we will be ready,” Football Kenya Federation boss Nick Mwendwa told Capital Sport.
