The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has said that contrary to initial statements indicating that the Sunday, March 23, 2025, match between Harambee Stars and Gabon had the venue sold out, several other seats were not purchased.

Speaking during a press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, FKF President Hussein Mohammed said that thousands of seats were not sold even as unticketed fans camped out of Nyayo Stadium to gain entry.

He said that while Nyayo Stadium can seat 22,000 fans in the regular, VIP and VVIP sections, only 17,735 seats were sold, leaving at least 4,265 seats empty despite the huge turnout.

Stopped selling tickets

“For the regular seats, we had 15,968. We stopped selling tickets at this number; so, any extra was an overflow and that happened when we had an issue at Gate 2 and Gate 8,” Mohammed noted.

“We had VIP tickets at 1,331 and we had car park slots at 329. For the VVIP areas, we had 107 tickets sold. The total tickets sold were 17735; and obviously, there was an overflow from that.”

Mohammed equally clarified that while the regular sitting area could seat 18,000 and the VIP 1,400, sales had to stop at a certain mark to conform with the standard operating procedures.

“As per Caf regulations, we are not supposed to sell 100 per cent of the seats; we are supposed to sell slightly less than that number,” Mohammed added.

Nyayo sold-out

In a statement on Saturday, March 22, 2025, FKF noted that all the seats at the Nyayo Stadium had been sold out for the highly-anticipated match between Kenya and Gabon.

“All tickets for our FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Gabon are officially sold out! Your unwavering support means everything. Let’s paint Nyayo red, black, and green this Sunday. Come cheer the team and let your voices be heard your energy could make all the difference,” the statement read.

Harambee Stars suffered a major setback in the match, losing 1-2 after Aubameyang netted twice. This further complicates Kenya’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup games in 2026.

Stars lost the match despite massive support from Kenyan fans and a host of leaders including President William Ruto and ODM party leader Raila Odinga who watched the game from the VVIP section.

Michael Olunga’s sole goal was not sufficient to hold back the firing Gabonese players who carried away the three points to come close to Ivory close who have 13 points against Gabon’s 12. Kenya is fourth-placed, sharing points with the Gambia which also has four points.