Kenya’s Harambee Stars have put togther a string of decent performers against top-ranked peers. This has puished them marginally up the FIFA Rankings. In the latest FIFA rankings, Stars have climbed two positions from 112 to 109, reflecting not just a blip but steady progress cultivated under Benni McCarthy, the South African coach appointed in March 2025.
McCarthy, fresh off roles at Cape Town City, AmaZulu FC, and even Manchester United as striker coach, has brought a new professionalism and continental ambition to Kenyan football. His influence is already evident: after improved performances in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, FKF’s confidence grew, and he was entrusted with shaping the squad for the upcoming 2025 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
The CHAN tournament, exclusively for players active in domestic leagues, is being co‑hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania from August 2 to 30, 2025. Preparing on home soil, Harambee Stars will face a daunting yet golden opportunity. McCarthy has named a 30‑man provisional squad featuring top local performers: Kakamega Homeboyz’s Moses Shumah (17 goals), FC Talanta’s Emmanuel Osoro (16 goals), and Tusker FC’s Ryan Ogam (15 goals). Rising stars such as Mohammed Bajaber, who dazzled during World Cup qualifiers and finished with nine league goals, also feature prominently.
Hosting CHAN is transformative. The refurbished Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, and Nyayo National Stadium, equipped with 3,000‑lux floodlights, VAR, CCTV, and media tribunes, exemplify Kenya’s infrastructural surge. These venues not only boost fan experience but position Kenya competitively for co‑hosting AFCON 2027, in line with the Pamoja East Africa vision.
For Harambee Stars, CHAN is more than a tournament; it’s a catalyst. Facing Group A rivals Morocco, DR Congo, Angola, and Zambia at Kasarani, Kenya can showcase homegrown talent, cement domestic league credibility, and attract sponsorships. With an estimated growth in African sports to over US$20 billion by 2035, tournaments like CHAN offer fertile ground for media rights, tourism, and youth development.
Harambee Stars Sustainability Prospects
But beneath this optimism lie deep challenges. First, domestic league instability continues to stifle talent. Teams still miss FKF‑imposed deadlines for constituting committees, refereeing structures, and appeals panels, undermining league credibility and delaying seasons. Continuity is essential: sporadic scheduling discourages sponsors and frustrates player development.
Second, while top performers earn national call‑ups, squad health is questionable. Ryan Ogam’s injury absence since February highlights inadequate club‑level medical support. Reports emerged of McCarthy selecting unfit players, sparking confusion in camp. This underscores fragile fitness regimes and a lack of rehabilitation infrastructure in many clubs.
Third, although talents like Austin Odhiambo and Kelly Madada excel, there’s still uneven distribution of talent scouting beyond Nairobi’s Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards systems. Peripheral regions remain under‑represented, limiting the talent pool and reinforcing inequalities.
Fourth, funding remains constrained. Despite government backing for stadium upgrades, consistent sponsorship remains elusive, particularly for grassroots and women’s programs. While FKF leadership, like Doreen Nabwire, has empowered women’s football, launching strategies in 2021, little budget commitment has followed.
Successful African federations offer compelling comparisons. Uganda and Tanzania, Kenya’s CHAN co‑hosts, have leveraged similar tournaments to boost infrastructure and coaching education. Tunisia’s dominance in domestic coaching courses and Ghana’s scouting networks (e.g., Future Eagles, right?) reveal how strategic investment in coaches, youth academies, and diaspora outreach yields national success. South Africa’s PSL reinvests a share of TV income into U‑17 and U‑19 leagues, a blueprint Kenya could adopt.
Player pathways demand an overhaul. The Ministry of Sports and FKF must establish year‑round national youth leagues, perhaps under a mandatory U‑23 domestic rule. Minimum standards for club licenses, covering medical staff, academy frameworks, youth quotas, and facility criteria, could be tied to club participation in the FKF Premier League. The private sector has a central role: corporate partners must be enlisted to fund academy scholarships and community‑level competitions; multinational firms and banks could sponsor whole grassroots divisions under CSR.
Improvements in sports science and coaching are crucial. Kenya needs a national centre for sports medical research and rehabilitation, linked to Moi and Nyayo stadiums, providing physiotherapy and fitness support to all clubs. Partnering with universities can create a pipeline of sports podiatrists, physiologists, and nutritionists. Scholarships should be created for coaches to attend CAF and UEFA licenses, ensuring technical capacity is systematic and comprehensive.
Will Kenya Hosting CHAN Help Local Football?
Championship hosting must be leveraged for legacy. Following CHAN, the Pamoja East Africa coalition must ensure continuity: stadiums should be managed as training hubs, providing ongoing access for national teams and youth academies. Cross‑border coaching exchanges with Uganda and Tanzania can proliferate best practices in referee training, security, event management, and fan engagement.
The private sector should fund centres of excellence in major cities, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, integrating campuses that combine education and high-level football training. Success begets success: take a player like Michael Olunga, who became a global ambassador after shining in Spain, Japan, and Qatar. That trajectory inspires talent to stay home, train hard, and dream big.
Federations like Morocco have built around domestic league stability, Heptagon academies, and diaspora scouting in Europe’s lower leagues. Ghana’s RFAs maintain scouting networks in youth tournaments and social media profiling. Kenya can emulate this with a national Football Intelligence Unit tasked with scouting and analytics, relying on VidScout‑style platforms.
To address the current challenges facing the Harambee Stars, both the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Ministry of Sports must take deliberate and strategic action. First, stabilising the domestic football calendar is critical. This requires strict enforcement of club licensing regulations, empowerment of the appeals and referees committees, sufficient funding of tribunal functions, and consistent penalisation of non-compliance. Without a reliable and transparent league structure, long-term development remains a mirage. Equally important is the prioritisation of player welfare. This can be achieved by introducing standardised medical protocols across all clubs, establishing robust rehabilitation frameworks, ensuring mandatory health insurance for all players, and instituting regular fitness audits to maintain peak performance levels.
Harambee Stars Talent Management Shortfalls
In parallel, talent identification must go beyond the traditional urban strongholds. Expanding scouting operations into rural and semi-urban regions through zonal talent days, closely tied to schools and community football hubs, will ensure a more inclusive pipeline of future stars. Coaching education, too, demands serious investment. FKF should fund the acquisition of CAF and UEFA licenses for local coaches, while also creating elite Master Coaching scholarships in line with CAF’s best practices to raise the overall technical standards of the game.
The role of the private sector cannot be overstated. It should be meaningfully engaged as a development partner through long-term sponsorship models linked to measurable national football program outcomes such as youth team success, increased participation rates, and talent progression metrics. Moreover, Kenya must maximise the legacy potential of its hosting duties. CHAN venues should be converted into full-time youth development and training centres, forming the backbone of a Nairobi-based football factory that nurtures talent year-round.
Finally, financial transparency remains foundational to sustained trust and credibility. The FKF should commit to publishing audited financial reports annually and aligning its governance with Global Sports Integrity benchmarks. This will not only attract elite international support and donor confidence but also set the tone for a disciplined and future-focused football ecosystem in Kenya.
These moves would not only boost the current CHAN squad, already riding hopeful momentum under McCarthy, but also shift Kenya into a new paradigm of football excellence. By 2027, when AFCON co‑hosting returns to East Africa, Kenyan football could be more than a participant: it could be a contender.
What Next For Harambee Stars
Errors must be acknowledged candidly. Past suspensions over governance issues (2004, 2006) and contract disputes (like Francis Kimanzi’s interim role) have eroded institutional memory and trust. But with defined reforms, the FKF can restore credibility.
If Kenya anchors its football strategy to hosting infrastructure, coaching meritocracy, private sponsorship, and youth empowerment, the Harambee Stars’ rise will be more sustainable. CHAN is a crucible, a test of resolve and systems. And Kenya, with McCarthy’s vision, has a real shot. Should they get this right, African football will begin to see the East African powerhouse Kenya was always meant to be.
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