Football Kenya Federation President Hussein Mohammed has promised that Kenya and its co-hosting partners of the 2024 CHAN will work hard to produce a top-level extravaganza.

The 2024 delayed edition was set to take place in February in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, but CAF, citing various reasons, moved it to August this year.

Mohammed said he has no issues with the new programme for August and promised that the federation will do all it can to ensure the tournament is exciting.

“I think August will be a wonderful, wonderful football festival, not only for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania but for the entire continent of Africa.

“These are pretty exciting times. We now have ample time, so there’s no need to rush. We are going to organize an even better event, and it’s very exciting for the region, especially for Kenya.

“This time, we want to show the rest of the world that East Africa can put on an extravaganza. We can compete with anyone in the world and host one of the best events ever seen,” Mohammed said as quoted by a local publication.

Although one of the reasons believed to have forced CAF to delay the tournament is lack of readiness, by August, Mohammed is confident everything will have aligned for the continental edition.

“We will start by hosting CHAN in August, and after that, we’ll prepare ourselves for AFCON 2027.

“We are working around the clock to make sure that all those involved in preparation don’t relent. The local organizing committee has shown that they are up to the task. We will up the ante,” he added.

Appointment of coach

Currently, Harambee Stars are under an interim technical bench led by Francis Kimanzi, and the FKF chief believes that the new CHAN schedule will give them enough time to recruit a permanent bench.

“I think, for us, it’s good enough that we just played in the Mapinduzi Cup the other day as a national team. This gives us time to put our technical bench in order and prepare our national team. We cannot simply participate in CHAN; we have to put on a good show as a country.”

This additional time will allow us to sort out our technical bench, finalize our national coach, and align our youth teams to the calendar. The future looks great for Kenyan football,” he added.