Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Football Kenya federation (FKF) led President Nick Mwendwa failed to explain clearly the reason why Kenya lost 6-0 aggregate in the hands of Mali a fortnight ago.

Mali ended Stars hopes of clinching a ticket to the 2022 World Cup by winning the return leg by a solitary goal at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

According to Mwendwa, who was in an interview with a local station, a key reason why stars performed poorly was because it lacked Kenya quality players that can perform at the highest stage.

“The work that needs to be done is we need to bring the talent to the table to record good results, which comes with quality players,” Mwendwa said.

Mwendwa further revealed the inclusion of celebrated coaches José Mourinho and Mikel Arteta to the national team will not in change the fortunes of the team.

“Even if you bring Mourinho or Arteta, the work that needs to be done must start from the young players and lowest level that we can nurture to perform at the highest level,” Mwendwa

During the ongoing African World cup qualifiers, Kenya seems to have recorded the worst run in history of Kenyan football despite the managerial reinforcement of the 51-year-old Turkish football manager, Engin Firat.

Mwendwa also took the opportunity to defend his decision of selecting Firat as the head coach despite his experience credentials which many have said are below per compared to local coaches

“A permanent coach was going to cost us a lot of money and the option that we had was to select a top coach who was willing to accept a short-term contract,” Mwendwa said.

On his part, while speaking on the side-lines of the loss to Mali Harambee Stars, Coach Firat made it clear that he will only extend his contract if FKF present to him a plan of how they intend to build a formidable team for the future.

Firat is the seventh coach since Mwendwa was elected. He is currently serving his second term.

Kenya were drawn in group E comprising Mali, Uganda and Rwanda.

Stars are currently placed in third position with just 2 points; 1 point ahead of the trailing Rwanda.