Harambee Starlets head coach Charles Okere is looking forward to the start of the Kenya Women Premier League next month, seeing it as a timely boost for the women’s national team in their Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers.Kenya are set to meet either Uganda or Ethiopia in the second round, with all indicators pointing towards a Kenya-Uganda clash, after handing South Sudan a thorough beating to storm the second round of the qualifiers.F.T#Tunaweza#HarambeeStarlets pic.twitter.com/WJlSK8lCWy— Harambee Starlets (@StarletsKE) October 23, 2021 With the local league set to kick start in November, starting with a curtain raiser between Thika Queens and Ulinzi Starlets in the FKF Women’s Super Cup, and having reverted to a unified format, Okere is hoping that there will be good players all around for his liking to add to the team’s quality.”The leagues are going to start and we are going to visit the league matches and see the best we can get out of the girls. Scouting is a continuous process so we are going to be scouting all over the country and when we see a good player we shall incorporate her into the team so that we can build from there,” Okere said.The former Tusker FC assistant coach further said that apart from being an opportunity to scout for new players to bring on board to the national team, it will also be an opportunity to monitor those that he currently have at the team.H.TTwo goals from Mwanahalima Adam put us on the frontfoot at half time.South Sudan 🇸🇸 0-2 🇰🇪 #HarambeeStarlets#Tunaweza pic.twitter.com/pgXl0PKRHR— Harambee Starlets (@StarletsKE) October 23, 2021 He went ahead to add that they will want to add to their good start in the qualifiers by ensuring that they play many friendly matches and up their preparation ahead of the second round.”It will be an opportunity to make a follow-up on the girls and I believe through that, by the time we are back in camp, we are going to have a great squad. We need to build from where we have started, play many friendly matches, have good planning, and have good preparations. Going forward we are going to have a standard team that is going to compete,” he added.Harambee Starlets demolished South Sudan 15-1 on aggregate, 8-0 in the first leg and 7-1 in the second, both encounters being played at Nyayo National Stadium.With a clash against Uganda being so imminent, perhaps it would be a chance for Okere and the big girls to revenge on behalf of the Rising Starlets who were thrashed by Uganda’s U20 10-3 on aggregate in their 2022 FIFA U20 Women World Cup Qualifiers.
