Kenya women's national football team

The Kenya women's national football team represents Kenya in women's football and is controlled by the Football Kenya Federation.

This article is about the women's team. For the men's team, see Kenya national football team.
Kenya
Nickname(s)Harambee Starlets
AssociationFootball Kenya Federation
ConfederationCAF
Sub-confederationCECAFA
Head coachDavid Ouma
Most capsWendy Achieng (30)
Home stadiumMoi International Sports Centre
Nairobi, Kenya
FIFA codeKEN
First colours
Second colours
Third colours
FIFA ranking
Current 124 13 (18 December 2020)[1]
Highest92 (December 2009)
Lowest144 (December 2007)
First international
 Kenya 7–0 Djibouti 
(Nairobi, Kenya; 26 March 2006)
Biggest win
 Kenya 12–0 Djibouti 
(Mbagala, Tanzania; 19 November 2019)
Biggest defeat
 Kenya 0–5 Cameroon 
(Nairobi, Kenya; 5 August 2006)
 Ethiopia 5–0 Kenya 
(Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 30 September 2012)
African Women's Championship
Appearances1 (first in 2016)

History

The first women's league in Kenya and national team were created in 1985[2] at a time when almost no country in the world had a women's national football team.[3] The national team is nicknamed the Harambee Starlets[4] and national team players are not full-time professional players. They need to have other employment.[5]

In 1993, Kenya Women's Football Federation was created and organised a national team that represented the country several times in international tournaments between its founding and 1996. In 1996, the Kenya Women's Football Federation folded under pressure from FIFA and women's football was subsumed by the Kenya Football Federation, with women being represented in the organisation as a subcommittee. Kenya Football Federation took over the management of the women's national team.[5]

In a 22 September 1998 game in Nairobi, Kenya beat South Africa 1-0. In a match in the same city two days later, they lost to South Africa 1–2.[6] In 2002, the national team played a game.[7] The team played in qualifying matches for Olympics in 2003.[2] In 2004, the team played 2 games.[7]

The team played in qualifying matches for the African Cup of Nations in 2006.[2] In 2006, the team played 3 games.[7] In 2006, the national team had 3 training sessions a week.[7] Djibouti women's national football team played Kenya in Nairobi on 26 March 2006, with Kenya winning 7–0, holding a lead of 4–0 at the half.[8][9][10] On 22 July 2006, Kenya played Cameroon women's national football team in Yaounde. Cameroon was up 2–0 at the half and went on to win the game 4–0. On 5 August 2006, Kenya played Cameroon in Nairobi. Cameroon was ahead 3–0 at the half and went on to win the game 5–0.[9][11] In the 2007 African Games qualifying tournament, Kenya beat Tanzania 2–1.[12] In 2010, the country had a team at the African Women's Championships during the preliminary round but withdrew and ultimately did not compete.[13][14][15]

In 2011, Grace Sayo was the team captain.[4] The country did not have a team competing at the 2011 All Africa Games.[16] The country was supposed to participate in qualifiers for the 2011 All Africa Games but the national federation withdrew the team after ten of the team's players had already traveled from the countryside to the capital for a training camp in preparation for an opening match against Tanzania. Women's football administrators in the country asked the government to investigate why the national football federation withdrew from the competition, while still having money available to send the men's national team around the continent for competitions. If they had played the match, it would have been their first international match since 2006 when they beat Djibouti.[4] In the 2012 Africa Women's Seniors Championships, the team withdrew from the competition prior to the first round qualifier.[17]

In March 2012, the team was ranked the 135th best in the world and the 31st best in the CAF.[18] Kenya's average FIFA world rank is 120. In 2011, they were ranked 136. In 2010, they were ranked 128. In 2009, they were ranked 92. In 2008, they were ranked 117. In 2007, they were ranked 144. In 2006, they were ranked 135. Their best move in world rankings was an increase of 24 in June 2007. Their worst move down world rankings was a loss of 27 in December 2007.[19]

In May 2017, the Football Kenya Federation signed a 3-year partnership with kits manufacturer Mafro Sports to providing the kits for all national teams, as well as junior categories. The national team will use red jerseys for home matches, white jerseys for away matches, and green jerseys for matches played on neutral venues.[20][21]

Background and development

Early development of the women's game at the time colonial powers brought football to the continent was limited as colonial powers in the region tended to take make concepts of patriarchy and women's participation in sport with them to local cultures that had similar concepts already embedded in them.[5] The lack of later development of the national team on a wider international level symptomatic of all African teams is a result of several factors, including limited access to education, poverty amongst women in the wider society, and fundamental inequality present in the society that occasionally allows for female specific human rights abuses.[22] When quality female football players are developed, they tend to leave for greater opportunities abroad.[23] Continent wide, funding is also an issue, with most development money coming from FIFA, not the national football association.[23] Future, success for women's football in Africa is dependent on improved facilities and access by women to these facilities. Attempting to commercialise the game and make it commercially viable is not the solution, as demonstrated by the current existence of many youth and women's football camps held throughout the continent.[24]

Women's football gained popularity in the country during the 1990s. In 1993, this popularity led to the creation of the female run Kenya Women's Football Federation, who organised a national team that represented the country several times in international tournaments between its founding and 1996. In 1996, the Kenya Women's Football Federation folded under pressure from FIFA and women's football was subsumed by the Kenya Football Federation, with women being represented in the organisation as a subcommittee.[5] Football is the fourth most popular sport for women in the country, trailing behind volley, basketball and field hockey.[7] In 1999, a woman referee from Kenya officiated a match between the Nigerian and South African women's teams in Johannesburg and was treated poorly by fans when she failed to call an offsides. The game was delayed because of the ensuring violence, which included bricks being tossed at her.[25] In 2006, there were 7,776 registered female football players of which 5,418 were registered, under-18 youth players and 2,358 were registered adult players.[7] This followed a pattern of increased registration of female football players in the country with 4,915 total registered players in 2000, 5,000 in 2001, 5,500 in 2002, 6,000 in 2003, 6,700 in 2004 and 7,100 in 2005.[7] In 2006, there were 710 total football teams in the country, with 690 being mixed gendered teams and 20 being women only.[7] In 2006, there were over 3,000 girls playing in seven different leagues around the country.[2] Rights to broadcast the 2011 Women's World Cup in the country were bought by the African Union of Broadcasting.[26]

Kenya Football Federation was created and joined FIFA in 1960. Their kit includes red, green and white shirts, black shorts and black socks.[7][27] The federation does not have a full-time dedicated employee working on women's football.[7] Women's football is represented on the federation by specific constitutional mandate.[7] FIFA suspended Kenya from all football activities for three months in 2004, due to the interference of the government in football activities. The ban was reversed after the country agreed to create new statutes.[28] On October 25, 2006, Kenya was suspended again from international football for failing to fulfill a January 2006 agreement made to resolve recurrent problems in their football federation. FIFA announced that the suspension would be in force until the federation complies with the agreements previously reached.[28][29] Rachel Kamweru is the Kenyan women football national chairperson.[4] COSAFA and FIFA reaffirmed a commitment to women's football in the East African countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania in 2010.[30]

Team image

Nicknames

The Kenya women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as the "Harambee Starlets".

Home stadium

Kenya play their home matches on the Moi International Sports Centre.

Under-17
Main article: Kenya women's national under-17 football team

In 2006, the under-17 national team had 2 training sessions a week.[7] They competed in the African Women U-17 Qualifying Tournament 2010. Botswana beat them in the opening round in a walk over win after Kneya withdrew from the tournament.[31][32] The women's U-17 team competed in the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup that will be held in Azerbaijan in September 2012. They did not advance out of their region.[33] They played a qualification match in Abeokuta against Nigeria.[34]

Under-19 and 20
Main article: Kenya women's national under-20 football team

In 2006, the under-19 national team had 2 training sessions a week.[7][35] The country participated in the African Women U-20 Championship 2006. They were supposed to play the Republic of Congo in Round 1 but the Republic of Congo withdrew from the competition. In the second round, they played Nigeria in Nigeria, losing 0–8. At home in the return match, they lost 1–2.[36][37] The under-20 national team competed in the 2010/2011 FIFA U-20 CAF Women's World Cup qualifying competition. They did not advance to the U20 Women's World Cup.[38] In the preliminary round, they tied Lesotho 2–2 in a home match for Lesotho. In the home leg, they beat Lesotho 2–0. In the first round qualifiers, they lost to Zambia 2–1 in a home game for Zambia. They beat Zambia 4–0 in the home leg. In the qualifiers, they lost to Tunisia at home 1–2 in the second round.[39][40] In 2012, the Zambian side was coached by Martha Kapombo. In the African qualification tournament for the U20 World Cup, Zambia lost to Kenya by an aggregate of 5–2 from the two matches, one home and away for both teams. Zambia lost the second match at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi by a score of 0–4. In a mid-February game, they had beaten Kenya 2–1 at Sunset Stadium in Lusaka. Kapombo said of the second game, "We were not prepared to lose to Kenya; actually we knew that we were going to beat them by four goals like they did to us. They changed most of the players who we played with in Zambia and that made it very hard for us in the midfield which failed to click." The Kenyan coach Florence Adhiambo said of the game ""We have come very far, we've been training hard and now we've seen what good training can do. We have worked hard to be here and the fans really played a very important role into this victory." The leg winner was scheduled to play Tunisia in the second round.[41] The Kenyans played Tunisian on 31 March 2012 at the Nyayo National Stadium in Tunisia. In the lead up to the game, the team had a three-week training camp. They were coached by Florence Adhiambo in the game. Ksh.700, 000 was given to the team by the Kenyan Prime Minister to support their World Cup aspirations. Additional funding came from UNICEF, Procter and Gamble, and Coca-Cola.[42]

Results and fixtures
  • The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
Legend

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixtures

2020
4 March Turkish Women's Cup Kenya  2-0  Northern Ireland U19 Alanya, Turkey
18:00
Report Stadium: Gold City Sport Complex
7 March Turkish Women's Cup Chile  5–0  Kenya Alanya, Turkey
16:00
Report Stadium: Starlight Sport Complex
10 March Turkish Women's Cup Kenya  1–3  Ghana Alanya, Turkey
16:00 ?  90+1' Report
Stadium: Gold City Sport Complex

Coaching staff

Current coaching staff

As of November 2020

PositionNameRef.
Head coach David Ouma
Assistant coach Michael Amenga

Manager history

Players

Current squad
  • The following players were named on 4 March 2020 for the 2020 Turkish Women's Cup.[48]
  • Caps and goals accurate up to and including 10 March 2020.
No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1GK Stella Ahono Zetech Sparks
1GK Judith Osimbo (1999-08-08) 8 August 1999 Gaspo Youth
1GK Monica Odato Wadadia
2DF Vivian Nasaka (1999-12-19) 19 December 1999 Vihiga Queens
2DF Nelly Sawe Thika Queens
2DF Dorcas Nixon (captain) (1989-04-04) 4 April 1989 Oserian
2DF Lucy Akoth (1999-12-12) 12 December 1999 Mathare United
2DF Lydia Akoth (1994-09-22) 22 September 1994 Thika Queens
2DF Foscah Nashivanda (2000-10-16) 16 October 2000 Zetech Sparks
2DF Dorcas Shiveka Eldoret Falcons
3MF Sheril Angachi (2000-01-01) 1 January 2000 Gaspo Youth
3MF Silvia Makhungu Kariobangi North
3MF Mercy Airo (1999-10-20) 20 October 1999 Kisumu All Starlets
3MF Janet Bundi (1996-12-15) 15 December 1996 Eldoret Falcons
3MF Jane Njeri Falling Waters
3MF Jentrix Shikangwa (2001-11-27) 27 November 2001 Wiyeta
3MF Rachael Muema (1999-10-06) 6 October 1999 Thika Queens
4FW Mwanalima Adam (1997-09-04) 4 September 1997 Thika Queens
4FW Stella Anyango Nakuru AllStars
4FW Purity Anyetu Zetech Sparks
4FW Topister Situma Vihiga Queens

Recent call-ups
  • The following players have been called up to Kenya squad in the past 12 months.
Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up
FW Elizabeth Katungwa Mombasa Olympics 2020 Turkish Women's Cup PRE

Records
  • Active players in bold, statistics correct as of 2020.

Competitive record

See also
Women's
Men's

References
  1. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. Saavedra, Martha; Center for African Studies, University of California, Berkeley (December 2007). "Women's Football in Africa" (PDF). Third Transnational Meeting on Sport and Gender, Urbino. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2012.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Chrös McDougall (1 January 2012). Soccer. ABDO. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-61783-146-1. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  4. Kitula, Sammy (February 9, 2011). "The Nation (Kenya) – AAGM: League Pullout Draws Wrath of Women". Daily Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  5. Peter Alegi (2 March 2010). African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game. Ohio University Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-89680-278-0. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  6. "South Africa – Women – International Results". Retrieved 2012-04-15.
  7. FIFA (2006). "Women's Football Today" (PDF): 106. Retrieved 8 June 2012. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. "Djibouti: Fixtures and Results". Retrieved 2012-04-15.
  9. "Kenya: Fixtures and Results". Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  10. Musumba, Chris; Nato, Kenneth (August 5, 2006). "The Nation (Kenya) – AAGM: Kenya Go On Redemption Crusade". Daily Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  11. "The Nation (Kenya) – AAGM: Time to Halt Losing Streak". Daily Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. September 4, 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  12. "African Games (Women) 2007". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  13. "Fixtures – African Women Championship 2010 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  14. "Africa – Women's Championship 2010". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  15. Saavedra, Martha E. "Women's Football in the Horn of Africa" (PDF). African Women's Football in the Global Sports Arena. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  16. "Groups & standings – All Africa Games women 2011 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-10. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  17. Bakama, James (January 15, 2012). "New Vision (Uganda) – AAGM: Crested Cranes in Danger". New Vision. Kampala, Uganda. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  18. "The FIFA Women's World Ranking". FIFA.com. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
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  20. "FKF unveils new kits in Ksh. 75M deal with Mafro Sports" (video). YouTube. NTV Kenya. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  21. "Kenya 2017–18 Mafro Sports Kits". Todo Sobre Camisetas (in Spanish). 22 May 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  22. Jean Williams (15 December 2007). A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football. Berg. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-84520-674-1. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  23. Gabriel Kuhn (24 February 2011). Soccer Vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics. PM Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-60486-053-5. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  24. Peter Alegi (2 March 2010). African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-89680-278-0. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  25. Wepukhulu, Hezekiah (November 12, 2005). "The Nation (Kenya) – AAGM: When Issues of Gender Don't Count". The Daily Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  26. "FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011TM Media Rights Licensees" (PDF). FIFA. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  27. Pickering, David (1994). The Cassell soccer companion : history, facts, anecdotes. London: Cassell. p. 172. ISBN 0304342319. OCLC 59851970.
  28. "FIFA suspends Kenya". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation sport. 26 October 2006.
  29. Wandera, Gilbert (October 25, 2006). "FIFA Suspends Kenya Indefinitely". Nairobi: AllAfrica.com – The East African Standard.
  30. Mamelodi, Ashford (15 November 2011). "Press Release 10" (PDF). Cosafa. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  31. "African Women U-17 Qualifying Tournament 2010". Rsssf.com. 2011-02-25. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  32. "Regulations — CAN U-17 women 2010 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  33. "FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup: Qualifiers". FIFA.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  34. "Duo out of She-Polopolo clash — SuperSport — Football". SuperSport. 2012-04-16. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  35. "Women U-19/U-20 World Cup". Rsssf.com. 2011-01-21. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  36. "African Women U-20 Championship 2006". Rsssf.com. 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  37. "Regulations — CAN U-20 women 2010 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  38. "FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup: Qualifiers". FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-16. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  39. "Fixtures – CAN U-20 women 2010 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  40. "African Women U-20 World Cup 2010 Qualifying". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  41. "The Post Newspapers Zambia — Latest News, Politics, Business, Sports, Photos, Videos » Sports News » U-20 coach blames midfield for loss to Kenya". Postzambia.com. 2012-03-05. Archived from the original on 2013-01-05. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  42. "football: U20 squad for Tunisia tie to be named Friday". Sportsnewsarena.com. 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  43. Wadegu, Francis (30 January 2014). "Kenya: Okiring Named Coach of Women's Football Team". allafrica.com. The Star, Kenya. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  44. "Ouma, Nabwire handed Harambee Starlets roles". Futaa.com.
  45. "REVEALED: Why Coach Ouma Left Harambee Starlets". 15 June 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  46. Makhandia, Agnes (16 June 2017). "Starlets rock US team in friendly". The Star, Kenya. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  47. "Harambee Starlets brush aside USA University side Lynchburg in friendly". Football Kenya Federation. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  48. "Harambee Starlets final squad for Turkish Women's Cup named, departure dates set". Football Kenya Federation. 2 March 2020.
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