Harambee Stars have been told to win their game to encourage fans to throng venues for the Caf African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament.
The delayed tournament, which features players from the domestic African leagues is set to be hosted by Kenya Uganda and Tanzania under the ‘Pamoja’ umbrella.
The event was initially set for February but was postponed to August 2025, due to logistical grounds.
CHAN Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairman, Nicholas Musonye, believes the only way to ensure fans return to the stadiums is for the national team to post good results and go past the group stage.
Kenya will play African giants Morocco, Angola, DR Congo and Zambia in Group ‘A’—dubbed pool of death.
Musonye called on the national team to ensure they win three games to proceed to the next round.
While speaking to NTV on Monday night, the experienced football administrator who served as Cecafa’s secretary-general for over 20 years insisted that if Kenya fails to go past the group stage, fans would abscond the remaining matches.
This comes at the back of the Stars’ poor performance at the Mapinduzi Cup tournament in Zanzibar, where were knocked out in the preliminaries.
Musonye, who was once quoted as saying: “Kenyans love to drink beer and gossip in bars as they enjoy foreign football as opposed to supporting their own’— is confident the East Africans under the Pamoja umbrella will host an incredible event ahead of 2027 the African Cup of Nations.
He said he talked to FKF president Hussein Mohamed, who is his LOC assistant, to ensure Harambee Stars win their matches and ensure they qualify for finals to avoid empty stadiums during the month-long event.
“For Kenyans, the tournament is as good as over when Harambee Stars lose and the only option they have is to drink beer,” he said.
Musonye refuted claims that Kenya was the reason the event was shelved and claimed Kenya was ready, and CAF gave their reasons for the postponement.
“The truth is that the qualifiers hadn’t been completed plus Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda had their issues. Our neighbours were relieved after the event was postponed,” said Musonye.
He said Egypt, Malawi and South Africa are still involved in qualifiers while Kenya Uganda and Tanzania had small issues that were yet to be aligned by Caf.
“We are our enemies. We came up with the fallacy that Kenya was not ready and even threw in Rwanda as a replacement. I called Rwanda, who seem know nothing about it. We have to be patriotic and love our country,” added Musonye.
While Musonye admitted that they are late with marketing the event, he affirmed that there is a strong media and marketing team from Caf, who are scheduled to hit the ground running next week.
"We will ensure the event is well publicised.”
“I headed Cecafa for 22 years and I never failed to host the regional tournament. I was the general coordinator of the Equatorial Guinea 2015 Afcon and I can assure you Kenya is ahead of Guinea in terms of preparations. We fixed lights on the eve of the tournament in Malabo and with Nyayo and Kasarani at 80 percent, I believe we are ready,” he poised.
Musonye disclosed that after the draw on Wednesday last week at KICC, they had a meeting with the ‘Pamoja LOC chairpersons to align matters and ensure they were on the same page.
The former Nation media journalist confirmed they will convene
another meeting in Kampala with
the ‘Pamoja’ LOC chairman Leodegar Tenga of Tanzania and Uganda
First Lady Janet Museveni to discuss the central LOC venue.
