AWCON 2016: “Debutants” Harambee Starlets Of Kenya

Formed in 1985 and nicknamed the Harambee Starlets, the Kenyan female national team will be making their debut at the Africa Women Cup of Nations, AWCON, which will take place in Cameroon from November 19 to December 3.

After taking over the management of the female football in Kenya in 1993, the Kenya Women’s Football Federation folded up three years later. However, under pressure from FIFA, the Kenya Football Federation took over the management of the women’s national team.
The Harambee Starlets are in a group with five times appearance Mali, three times finalist Ghana and nine times AWCON winners, Super Falcons of Nigeria. A tough pool indeed for them, but like debutants, they will be coming to write their own story in the annals of the AWCON.

Their baptism of fire will be when they face Ghana on November 20 at the Limbe Omnisport Stadium.
With a squad made up of only home-based players who mostly play with Spedag and Thika Queens, coach David Ouma will be relying on cohesion to see that he creates a surprise in Group B.
Considered underdogs in Group B, the Harambee Starlets, the only green nose in the 2016 AWCON, will be relying to create a Leicester City-like fairy tale to conquer African female football.
As far as their FIFA world ranking is concerned, Kenya’s average rank is 120.
Meanwhile, the Harambee Starlets made their debut in the qualifiers for the tournament in 1998 but withdrew. In 2000, 2010 and 2012, they appeared at the qualifiers stage but withdrew. In 2006 qualifiers, they took part but failed to qualify.
As far as their performance is concerned, their biggest win was 7-0 against Djibouti on March 26, 2006. However, they will in that same year suffer their worst defeat when they were thrashed at home 0-5 by the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon.
In Kenya, football is the fourth most popular sport for women, trailing behind volley, basketball and field hockey. As a result, little or no attention has been given to the king sport.
Football in Kenya witnessed some popularity when some 4,915 players registered in 2000, 5,000 in 2001, 5,500 in 2002, 6,000 in 2003, 6,700 in 2004 and 7,100 in 2005.

In 2006, 7,776 female football players were registered of which 5,418 were registered, under-18 youth players and 2,358 were registered as adult players.
There was also an increase in the number of clubs when in 2006 after a FIFA ban, 710 football teams were created in the country, with 690 being mixed gendered teams and 20 being women only.

Also, there were over 3,000 girls playing in seven different leagues around the country.