Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has admitted that there is immense pressure on the country to meet the Tuesday 31 December deadline set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to have Kasarani and Nyayo Stadiums ready.Kenya is set to co-host the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) alongside her neighbours Uganda and Tanzania.CS Murkomen: Engin Firat must goIn preparation for the continental tourney, the country is carrying out renovations at Moi International Sports Center, Kasarani and Nyayo National Stadium which are the Kenyan venues for the tournament.In addition, Ulinzi Sports Complex and Police Sacco Stadium are part of the training grounds and are therefore also undergoing renovations.##NAJAVA_MECA_8564159##Works in the various sporting facilities are behind schedule ahead of the delayed 2024 CHAN which is scheduled for February 2025. The CS says that maybe the country ought not to have bid for CHAN.“If you ask me, it was not necessary for us to host CHAN. That pressure was not necessary at this point in time. Hosting AFCON was fantastic because we have enough time,” said Murkomen in an interview with NTV.AFC Leopards striker denies partying claims, defends underwhelming season performanceThe CS also believed that maybe the country should have presented one stadium for the tournament instead of two which is now placing the country under the pump to have them ready.“The CHAN bid is independent from the AFCON bid. From hindsight, it was a mistake. Even Uganda and Tanzania which have ready stadiums offered only one stadium. ##NAJAVA_MECA_8564179##For us, we were extremely ambitious considering that we did not have even a single stadium ready by then,” he added.The former Transport CS also disclosed that the country chose to overlook advice from experts who thought that hosting CHAN may be too soon for the country due to insufficient infrastructure.FKF president Hussein Mohammed’s plan to eradicate match fixing“With proper reflection, I think when we were bidding, we could have gone for AFCON and not CHAN. There are people with expertise who advised us against CHAN but I think we were too excited because we had not hosted it for a long time,” he stated.
