Kenya stripped of 2018 CHAN hosting rights
Kenya was on Saturday stripped of the rights to host next year's African Nations Championship by the Confederation of African Football.
In a statement on its official website, CAF said the decision followed Kenya's slow pace in preparing for the tournament.
This includes building new stadia and renovating existing ones.
The CAF Executive Committee under the chairmanship of CAF President Ahmad Ahmad arrived at the resolution following an eight hour meeting in Accra, Ghana.
The meeting was called to deliberate on 20 issues related to African football, including Kenya's sluggish preparations.
"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 statement said the deadline for submission of applications for the tournament which will be held in January 2018 will close seven days from Sunday, 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.
Speaking to the Star via phone shortly after the news broke, KFF President Nick Mwendwa said the repeat elections slated for October 26 played a huge role for CAF's decision.
"The only stadium they were unhappy with was Kipchoge Keino Stadium," Mwendwa said, implying the confederation was content with other preparations.
He followed it up with a tweet: "Yes we lost CHAN. Bad day for Kenya. Now we continue the journey. Build stadia, develop youth, coaches and work harder."
Kenya prides itself with only two national stadia with the capacity to handle a tournament of the status of CHAN; Kasarani and Nyayo.
Kenya won the hosting rights for the continental football championship in February 2014 but not a single stadium has been constructed to date.
Many local football pundits have blamed this on perennial lack of political goodwill that has seen sporting activities neglected for a long time by the government of the day.
Ironically, CAFs decision to award Kenya the hosting rights followed "receipt of necessary government guarantees and complete dossier including the required infrastructure and security".
The tournament would have been the first continental event to be hosted by Kenya.
In 1996, the country missed an opportunity to host the Africa Cup of Nations after failing to attain CAF's benchmark.
The last time Kenya participated in a continental football tournament was in 2004 where it exited the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia at the group stages.
Courtesy Emmanuel Wanjala