History as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania jointly win bid to host AFCON 2027

The East Africa's Pamoja Bid by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania on Wednesday won the rights to host the 36th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

The joint candidacy beat other bids from Botswana, Egypt and Senegal following a vote conducted by members of the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) during their meeting in Cairo.

During the event, Kenya was represented by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba and the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa.

Morocco beat  Zambia and a joint bid from Benin and Nigeria to win the hosting rights of the 35th edition in 2025.

Algeria had withdrawn their bid to host either the 2025 or 2027 finals on the eve of the vote.

Speaking at the announcement ceremony, CAF president Patrice Motsepe stressed on the need for the three nations to meet the required standards.

"You have all the heads of states, President Ruto, President Museveni and President Samia expressing deep commitment. I just want to say we are very strict in terms of the requirements that we are placing on these countries both in terms of freedom of movement of people in and out of the country and the support of the infrastructure. We will be sending teams to form an evaluation of the progress that has been made."

Kenya, which got the nod from CAF to host the 1996 fiesta had the hosting rights  later handed to South Africa for lack of stadia readiness, joined hands with neighbours Tanzania and Uganda in May for the joint bid.

CAF also stripped Kenya of the rights to host the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) owing to lack of enough facilities.

The government has already announced the closure of  Kasarani, Nyayo and Kip Keino stadiums for renovations in the race to host the 24-nations biennial tournament.