The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has stripped Kenya of the right to host the 2018 African Nations Championship over alleged poor preparation.
The decision was announced at a media conference after a one-day meeting of the African football “cabinet” headed by President Ahmad Ahmad.
Slow preparations for the January 12-February 4 tournament led to a decision widely anticipated for several weeks.
A CAF inspection team departed Kenya in September to report that only one of the four venues Is ready to stage the tournament which is just for home-based footballers.
Some CAF officials in Accra also expressed concern about the political situation in Kenya, where the annulled presidential election is set to be held in late October.
Second time
Kenya has now lost the right to stage a Caf event for the second time after being replaced by South Africa as 1996 Africa Cup of Nations hosts.
Kenya would have been the second successive east African country to stage the CHAN after Rwanda in 2016.
Other hosts since the 2009 inception of the Nations Championship were the Ivory Coast, Sudan and South Africa.
Meanwhile, there has been media speculation that Morocco or South Africa may replace Kenya.
Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia have qualified for the 2018 finals.
Kenya completed the line-up as the host nation — a position they have now forfeited.
