Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania submitted a joint bid to host the 2027 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament and competed for the hosting rights against Egypt, Senegal, and Botswana. The East African nations emerged victorious after much lobbying which even involved heads of states. It will be the first time the prestigious football tournament will come to the East and Central African region. The tournament is hosted every two years and is funded by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the African continent football governing body. In a CAF meeting in Cairo chaired by confederation president Patrice Motsepe, East Africa's Pamoja bid emerged to be victorious. 

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Kenya was represented by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba together with Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa during the event. In the race to secure the bid, Kenya's Ministry of Sports unveiled plans to renovate and revamp three stadiums; Kasarani Stadium, Nyayo Stadium, and the Kipchoge Keino Stadium. The Kenyan government is also planning to build the Talanta Stadium at the Jamhuri Sports Ground located in Nairobi. CAF president Patrice Motsepe during the event said that there was intense lobbying from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda which even involved the nations' heads of states. He, however, noted that the hosting rights will come along with a lot of demands that will need to be met to the required standards well ahead of time. Kenya's government will be required to demonstrate that the transport infrastructure in the country will be able to handle the human traffic that will be streaming to the country for the continental showpiece event. The country will also be required to have adequate accommodation facilities to host the VIPs, visitors, delegates, technical staff, and teams that will be participating in the tournament. 

"We are very strict on the requirements that we are placing on these countries in terms of the movement of people, support and infrastructure the cooperation. We will be sending our teams to form an evaluation of our progress," the CAF president stated.  The Kenyan government now have the task of fulfilling the hosting obligations to avoid a repeat of the scenario that happened in 2018 where Kenya lost the hosting rights of the 2018 African Nations Champions (CHAN) due to substandard infrastructure as a result of poor planning. 

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(Image: Ababu Namwamba)