Kenya’s national football team has withdrawn from the CECAFA pre-African Nations Championship (CHAN) friendlies in Tanzania, citing unsuitable pitch conditions that posed a risk to player safety and tournament readiness.

The decision came just hours before Harambee Stars were scheduled to face co-hosts Tanzania in the opening match of a four-nation tournament that also included Uganda and Senegal.

Head coach Benni McCarthy explained that the playing surface in Karatu did not meet the standards required for high-level preparation. After consultations with the technical bench, the team opted to return to Nairobi to resume training under better conditions.

“We went there with good intentions but… the conditions were not satisfactory,” McCarthy told reporters in Nairobi, specifying that it was the pitch quality that concerned them.

“The team and technical bench came out and said if we wanted to continue in the tournament it would set us back majorly. It probably meant losing players to injuries before the start of CHAN.”

Kenya is drawn into a challenging CHAN group featuring Morocco, DR Congo, and Angola.

With the tournament kicking off on August 2 and concluding on August 30 in Nairobi, the team is now focused on maximizing its final training window to boost its chances in what McCarthy described as the “group of death.”

“We thought it best to come back and have the best possible training to optimise our chances because the group we’re based in is the group of death,” said McCarthy.

This year’s CHAN is the first to be jointly hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.