[Kenya's Kasarani Stadium. It was one of the stadia planned to host some matches in next year's CHAN championships.] (Photo/theeastafrican)
The country’s hopes of hosting next year’s African Nations Championship by the Confederation of African Football were on Saturday dashed, after the continent body; CAF indicated that the country has been stripped off its rights.
According to a statement on its official website, the decision was reached on following Kenya’s slow pace in preparations.
The decision was reached upon after a meeting in Accra, Ghana, which was also used to deliberate on 20 other issues on African football.
"With an overwhelming majority of the members present, it was decided to withdraw the hosting rights of the competition from Kenya in the light of accumulated delays from reports of the various inspection missions conducted in the country, the last of which took place from 11 to 17 September 2017," the statement read.
"The CAF Acting General Secretary has been instructed to immediately open a bidding process for a new host," it added.
The country has been renovating different stadia in readiness for the tournament, but CAF said the efforts were not good enough.
The statement further said the deadline for submission of applications for next year’s tournament will close seven days from September 24.
"The identity of the bidding countries will be disclosed within a maximum 15 days of the opening of the bidding process," CAF said.
The tournament would have been the first continental event to be hosted by Kenya.