Kenya’s resolute course to stage the 2027 African Cup of Nations is still on, the ministry of Sports has declared.

Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has revealed that Kenya managed to beat the CAF April 20 deadline for expression of interest on hosting the continental showpiece.

The expression of interest is submitted jointly with regional neighbors Tanzania and Uganda.

“Yes, we did submit our expression of interest to CAF and we will be happy to share with you (Media) our formal confirmation. This is a government initiative and we are glad to be doing this jointly with our friendly sister countries of Uganda and Tanzania. I am in touch with my colleague ministers and so we aligned, this is a matter in which progress is being made and we are also working closely with Kenya Football Federation,” Namwamba told People Daily Sport.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Secretary General Barry Otieno has confirmed the development noting that they have already received feedback from the Confederation of African Football on Kenya’s joint expression of interest and they are now waiting to receive documents for the bidding process.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda AFCON hosting dream received a major boost after Namibia withdrew its commitment of partnering with Botswana enroute to getting the rights by co-hosting. Efforts to establish whether Botswana expressed solo interest for Africa’s premier competition were unsuccessful.

“The joint bid of Namibia and Botswana was an interesting bid but for what Namibia said was on financial reasons that they exited the process. We don’t want to anchor our bid on the withdrawal of any other bidder or on the position of any other interested party. We believe that a Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda bid is a strong bid and we believe it is about time the African Cup of Nations came to the eastern part of African. We are ready and determined as a country to make sure that we get it right this time,” Namwamba added.

The last time AFCON was staged in East African regions was 53 years ago when Sudan hosted the tourney.

Kenya lost a golden opportunity to welcome home the creme de la creme of African football in 1996 and the eventual tournament was moved to South Africa.

Whilst the 2027 tournament is poised for the CECAFA region, the three, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania countries have tough tasks ahead to prove readiness in terms of infrastructure and financial abilities.

Burkina Faso, Zambia and Senegal are other countries believed to be interested in hosting the competition that is just four years away.

Countries with such intention are required to submit their official bids to CAF by May 23.