Harambee Starlets learn qualification path to 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games

Kenya women’s national football team, Harambee Starlets, will have to go through global heavyweights including Zambia and South Africa, if they are to qualify for their first-ever Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

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This comes after Kenya was placed in the qualification path of the two successful nations and past Olympians, following a CAF Women’s Olympic Qualifiers Draw held in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday, 29 April.

As per the draw, a total of 35 African nations will over the next year fight it out for just two places at the Olympic Games in 2028, with the entire process taking up to five rounds ending in December 2027.

Kenya, however, is in a group of 29 teams that will be exempt from the first round, which is a reserve for the lowest six nations in the continent, including: Sudan, Mauritius, Djibouti, South Sudan, Madagascar, and Comoros.

Instead Harambee Starlets’ journey to LA will begin in the second round, where they will come up against lowly-ranked Seychelles in a two-legged tie slated for between 5-13 October this year.

Should Kenya, who are 47 places higher than Seychelles in the latest FIFA rankings, get through that round, their next fixture in the third round presents a tie between either Malawi or Zimbabwe, who are also paired together in the second round.

Zimbabwe have past experience in the Olympic Games, having reached the group stages in 2016.

The third round is scheduled to take place on 23 February to 6 March 2027.

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Given Harambee Starlets jump over that hurdle too, a place in the fourth round awaits, where they Kenya could play either of: Uganda, Zambia, Mauritius, Djibouti, or Ghana.

As per the draw, Uganda and Zimbabwe face off in the second round, with Ghana facing the winner of the first round tie between the unranked Mauritius or Djibouti.

The winners of the second rounds then face each other in the third round, to produce the team that Kenya plays in the third round.

Once through that tie, which is scheduled for 4-12 October 2027, Kenya would face the prospect of a two-legged tie in the fifth round, standing in their way to a first-ever Olympic Games.

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There, Kenya would have to play the last team standing of all of: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Botswana, Tanzania, Angola, Namibia, South Sudan, Madagascar, and South Africa.

The winner of the fifth round, slated for 23 November to 4 December 2027, will therefore have sealed a long journey to the Summer Games.

The other team, as per the draw, is set to come from the opposite side of the draw, which consists of teams drawn from UNAF, UNIFFAC, WAFU A, and WAFU B.

Kenya’s side of the draw consists of teams from the CECAFA and COSAFA regions.

FULL DRAW IN PICTURES:

1st round:

2nd round:

3rd round:

4th and 5th rounds: