WAFCON 2026: Why FKF Boss Wants Harambee Starlets to Emulate Benni McCarthy’s Harambee Stars

As Harambee Stars prepare for the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON 2026), they have been urged to draw inspiration from their male counterparts.

Kenya are in what has been described as the ‘Group of Death’ at WAFCON 2026 where they play hosts Morocco, Algeria and Senegal and the is a feeling that they stand no chance of making it to the knockout round.

This is because Morocco are one of Africa’s top-ranked teams and have reached the finals of the last two WAFCONs, while Algeria and Senegal made it to the quarter-final in the last edition.

With the competition also serving as the World Cup qualifier, where the four teams that will make it to the semi-final will earn their ticket to next year’s tournament in Brazil, Starlets have their work cut out.

However, FKF president Hussein Mohammed feels the team can draw inspiration from Harambee Stars’ performance at CHAN 2024 when they topped what was considered the group of Death that had Morocco, eventual champions, Angola and Zambia to reach the quarter-final.

“I want to remind everyone of us that when we were drawn against the giants of African football, during last year’s CHAN, we were able to show the rest of the world that Kenya is also a football powerhouse,” Mohammed said when the team was hosted by President William Ruto at State House, Nairobi on Tuesday.

“We managed to make the country proud despite being in the Group of Death. So, I am very confident in the Harambee Starlets that you will be able to succeed come WAFCON later on this month.

“WAFCON to us is very important and critical because it is also a World Cup qualifier for the senior team and God willing, if they make it to the semi-final, they will qualify for the World Cup. I know with the right motivation, this team has the capacity to go all the way to the semi-finals of WAFCON,” he further stated.

Kenya will begin their WAFCON campaign against Morocco on July 26 before taking on Senegal four days later and then complete group stage action with a meeting with Algeria on August 3.