(From left) CAF president Patrice Motsepe, Kenyan President William Ruto and FIFA President Gianni Infantino hand over the trophy to Morocco during their CHAN final at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on August 30, 2025.
Kenya’s Harambee Stars will on Tuesday, May 19 2026, know the teams they will play in the qualifiers of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) conducts the draw at the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) headquarters in Cairo.
The draw will start at 3pm (Kenyan time), with 48 teams including the 2027 Afcon finals co-host; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania being pooled into 12 groups of four teams each. Only the top two sides from each pool will qualify for the continental showpiece, which will be held from June 19 to July 17 next year.
With co-host Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania already guaranteed places at 2027 Afcon finals irrespective of their qualification results, only one additional team will qualify for Afcon from their respective qualifier groups.
As a standard practice in Afcon qualifiers, the tournament’s host nation still take part in the qualifiers mainly to ensure that they remain competitive and active by playing high-level competitive fixtures. The 2027 Afcon finals qualifiers will be played across three Fifa international windows.
The opening two matches are scheduled for between September 21 and October 6, 2025. The third and fourth matches will take place in the international window between November 9 and 17, while the final two rounds of the fixtures will be played from March 22 to 30, 2027.
Harambee Stars physiotherapist Musa Hamisi leads players in a work-out during their training session at the Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi, on November 11, 2025.
Today’s qualifiers draw in Cairo will bring together some of Africa’s football greats. Cote d’Ivoire’s Max-Alain Gradel, Nigeria’s William Troost-Ekong, Egypt’s Essam El Hadary, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tresor Mputu will lead the ceremony.
Playing as a forward, Gradel won the 2015 and 2023 Afcon titles with Cote d’Ivoire’s Elephants, while Troost-Ekong became one of Nigeria’s defining defenders of the modern era. He was named Player of the Tournament at the 2023 Afcon finals held in Côte d’Ivoire.
El Hadary is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers from Africa. He won four Afcon titles with Egypt. Congolese attacking midfielder Mputu is often described as one of the finest African footballers never to have played in Europe. He helped giants TP Mazembe win multiple titles, including back-to-back CAF Champions League trophies. Mputu was at the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo side that won the 2009 African Nations Championship (Chan).
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have yet to host the Afcon finals. The upcoming 36th edition will mark the first time in 51 years that East Africa hosts the continental showpiece, with the last staging in the region taking place in 1976 in Ethiopia. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are in a race against time to have all the venues earmarked for the tournament ready by December 2025 as demanded by CAF.
In what was a worrying development, a February inspection by the continental football governing body established that none of the proposed venues for the upcoming Afcon across the three countries met the required standards for hosting the prestigious continental showpiece.
CAF are expected to conduct another inspection across the three countries in August. On May 12, 2026, in Nairobi, CAF and the three host countries agreed to form the “Pamoja” Oversight Committee for the 2017 Afcon to coordinate the preparation for the competition.
The key responsibilities for the committee are to accelerate stadium and infrastructure development across the three countries, and confirm host venues, as well as key operational plans.
Others are coordinating cross-border matters such as joint visas, immigration, customs and mobility, as well as overseeing safety, security and medical preparedness and delivery of core tournament infrastructure and services.
At the 2027 Afcon finals, Harambee Stars will be making their seventh appearance on the big stage after their previous participation in 1972, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2004 and in 2019. Kenya has yet to go past the group stage of the tournament. Banking on the home advantage, Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has said the team’s primary target is to go past the group stage.
Apart from taking part in international friendly matches, Kenya is preparing for the 2027 Afcon by persuading several Europe-based players with Kenyan roots to commit their international futures to Harambee Stars.
In March 2025, McCarthy, Harambee Stars team manager Nick Kimanthi, FKF vice president McDonald Mariga and National Executive Committee (NEC) member Yusuf Abdalla pitched camp in England, where they met several players of Kenyan descent. They included midfielders Tyler Onyango, Zechariah Obiero, Andre Gitau and Silko-Amari Thomas Otieno, and defender Zachary Vyner.
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