Mwendwa said they are determined to ensure Stars are well equipped to engage on equal footing with their opponents when the qualifiers for the 2019 African Cup of Nations start later this year.
“We played Congo in their own turf and beat them so we want them to come here so that we can give our players an opportunity to show they are up to the task. The national team will also play against Mali later. For years, we have not done well against West African nations and we want to show things will be different from now on,” Mwendwa said.
Kenya is in a tricky group to reach the finals that will be held in Cameroon with five-time African champions Ghana as well as Ethiopia and Sierra Leone standing in their way.
At the same time and for the first time in the history of Kenyan football, all the 20 branches of FKF will benefit from financial agreements the national office entered into with its commercial partners. The first batch of Sh2 million is to be shared equally handed over to branch officials at the federation headquarters at Goal Project Kasarani.
Mwendwa revealed that the amount will rise to Sh8 million this year and increase even further when the federation goes into other sponsorship agreements.
“We want the game to grow at the grass roots so every commercial agreement we will make as a federation ten percent of the deal will go directly to the branches,” Mwendwa told the gathering branch officials.
The FKF boss went on to enumerate the achievements of his federation, which celebrated one year in office yesterday pointing to the fact that for the first time, a Kenyan women national team, Harambee Starlets, qualified for the women’s African Cup of Nations Their male counterparts, Harambee Stars, are on an eight-match unbeaten streak since Stanley Okumbi took over. Mwendwa disclosed that Kenya played the most international fixtures last year, according to Fifa stats.
Currently, the national under-20 team which Mwendwa said is being prepared for the qualifiers of the 2020 Olympics that will be held in Tokyo, Japan, is in Senegal for a friendly against the hosts.
-The Star