As Harambee Stars left the country for a three-week training camp in France, coach Sebastiene Migne was at pains to explain his selection choice for the 27-man man travelling party.
The exclusion of Allan Wanga, the Kenyan Premier League leading scorer and the earlier presence of Brian Bwire and John Oyemba, two Kariobangi Sharks goalkeepers had attracted negative review.
“I chose the team on my own. I do not know about the situation in 2004 but if the president (FKF’s Nick Mwendwa) interfered with my choices I would definitely not be here,” Migne remarked. The Frenchman explained that the decision to include Sharks keepers in the squad was a matter of necessity rather than a definitive choice.
“There has been a lot of talk about having two Sharks keepers in the squad but we needed them because of the sessions we were having. Farouk (Shikhalo) was in Mombasa and (Patrick) Matasi was yet to join us and we needed some keepers who could be available every day. That's why we settled on Brian and John,” explained Migne.
The coach revealed that being an expanded African Cup of Nations, with 24 teams, Kenya will be targeting a first time place in the knockout face of the biennial continental showpiece.
“Our target is to try and reach the last 16 after that anything can happen. But we must take every game at a time and try to reach our target,” Migne rebutted to questions about Stars’ aim at the Egyptian showpiece, a tournament in which Kenya have won just one match in five editions, a 3-0 victory over Burkina Faso in the 2004 event in Tunisia.
The coach again touted defensive solidity as Stars best hopes of performing well at the Afcon.
“We played very well in defence during the qualifiers, conceding only four goals. I expect the team to retain the same level. We have five central defenders but we are going to take only four to the Afcon,” revealed Migne.
The French coach has at his disposal David Owino, Brian Mandela, Joseph Okumu, Joash Onyango and Musa Mohammed as he tries to finalise his central defensive line-up. Joash and Musa have been part of the team’s training camp at Kasarani for the last two weeks while the remaining trio will join up with their compatriots in Paris.
