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It is official that the Kenya national women’s football team Harambee Starlets will still not participate in the 2022 AWCON set to start in July in Morocco.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport(CAS) in a ruling made on Friday June 10, said that former Football Kenya Federation (FKF) CEO Barry Otieno acted beyond his authority in a response he sent to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in regards to Kenya’s preparedness before hosting the Uganda Women’s football team.

According to the former FKF CEO, the country was not ín a position to’ host Uganda, a decision that kicked the Starlets out of the competition technically despite assembling a strong side for over four weeks. 

Harambee Starlets had been handed a brief reprieve by the the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but time seems to have run for Alex Alumira’s girls. 

In the ruling delivered from Lausanne, CAS ruled that they have no authority to order a replay of the two-legged qualifier meaning that the decision by CAF to hand Uganda a bye in the qualifiers stands. 

In the ruling, CAS said, “The CAS arbitrator in charge of this matter ruled that CAS had jurisdiction to rule on the appeal filed by the 22 players on 18 February 2022 against the FKF decision but did not have jurisdiction to rule on the request to order the CAF to reinstate the Kenya Women’s National Football Team to the AWCON and to rearrange the matches against Uganda in the second AWCON qualifying round before the start of the AWCON finals group stage on 2 July 2022.

As to the merits, the sole arbitrator ruled that the decision rendered on 20 January 2022 by Mr. Barry Otieno, former CEO of FKF, on behalf of the FKF, was to be set aside as it had been issued “ultra vires”, i.e. by a person who was no longer entitled to act on behalf of the FKF. Since no appeal has been filed against the CAF decision to qualify Uganda to the next qualifying round, the CAS could not review it.”