Sports

Kenya to face Uganda in 4-Nations tournament opener

Wednesday 16th July, 2025 04:22 PM| By Luke Oluoch

Kenya’s Harambee Stars will kick off their Four-Nations tournament games against noisy neighbors Uganda on Monday, July 21, 2025.

The regional mini-tournament to be held in Arusha, Tanzania, has been scheduled to bolster preparations of the teams set to feature in the upcoming African Nations Championship, set to kick off on Monday, July 21, 2025, and run through to Sunday, July 27, 2025.

The competition has attracted hosts Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Congo Brazzaville as the guest side.

Match fixtures

According to the match schedule revealed by the regional football body, the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA), Benni McCarthy’s team will open their campaign against Uganda Cranes, while Tanzania will face Congo Brazzaville on the same day, July 21.

Match day 2 will see Congo Brazzaville take on Uganda, while Tanzania battles it out against Kenya on Thursday, July 24, 2025.

Harambee Stars players in Morocco in prep for the international friendly match. PHOTO/@Harambee__Stars/X

The four teams will all field teams composed of home-based players.

Auka John Gecheo, CECAFA’s Executive Director, further revealed that Sudan, another CECAFA team that will feature in the CHAN tournament, requested to skip the event to concentrate on the local league, which kicked off recently.

“The primary objective of this competition is to offer our zonal teams a valuable platform to prepare adequately ahead of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) scheduled for August 2025,” Gecheo stated.

The mini-tournament will see every team play three matches on a round-robin format, with the team amassing the most points emerging as the winner.

Kenya will be hoping to perpetuate their good run in the mini-tournament after clinching a similar competition in March 2024 held in Malawi.

A team comprising Harmbee Stars’ foreign and local players bagged the tourney after a spectacular come-from-behind 3-1 victory against Zimbabwe at the Bingu Stadium.