The Confederation of African Football will begin an inspection visit to Kenya on Monday, ahead of the 2018 African Nations Championship -- also known as CHAN. Originally the trip was to begin this past Thursday, but was postponed due to uncertainty following the annulled presidential elections in the country. Members of the Local Organising Committee are confident of their progress, and hope they don't end up losing out on hosting a continental tournament for the second time in the past two decades. Wazir Khamsin explains.

 

Kenya will be looking to avoid a repeat of the 1996 Africa Cup Of Nations, that saw them stripped off the hosting rights, when the CAF delegation jet into the country for the final CHAN 2018 venues inspection.

 

HERBERT MWACHIRO, 2018 CHAN LOC EVENT DIRECTOR "We have a target that we are to meet with CAF with this forthcoming inspection. From the last inspection CAF were disappointed with the not so much work having been done on the venues. And they did insist when they come for this inspection they want to see quite an amount of work on the ground. They Know they will not find a fully finished stadium when they come for this inspection."

 

So far construction works are working round the clock to ensure all the five listed venues in the country are ready for the tournament. With all of them at different phases of completion.

 

HERBERT MWACHIRO, 2018 CHAN LOC EVENT DIRECTOR "Nyayo was supposed to add 4 more changing rooms and that is already happening. If you go to Nyayo, The VIP dias needs to be changed in terms of the structure as well as that whole main pavillion. You will see that the contractor is already hard at work on that. Nyayo is a very important venue for us, and remember it is one of our oldest modern stadiums that we have in this country. It would be a falacy if we didn't hold this event at Nyayo. There is already 60% work that has been done at Kinoru Stadium in Meru. All the stadiums by the way are in the hands of contractors. There is no activity going on there. There is no sporting activity."

 

The nation is not only hard at work with the match venues but also the training venues that will be used by the 16 teams that will be in Kenya as of January 2018.

 

NO SUPER "One of the things that will be done to the training grounds is to ensure that they have got good surfaces for the teams to be able to come and train, as well as the possibility of having floodlights, could be permanent or temporarrily at those venues and the changing rooms as well for the teams to use."

 

The Local Organising Committee is however buoyant that with the current speed of the contractors, the country is on track to meet the set deadline.

 

NO SUPER "I don't expect us to be ready until probably mid-December, thats when we can say Yes, we are ready with all the facilities and I mean thats a good target. If we look at what happened in Gabon, Gabon were ready 15 days to the start of the AFCON."

 

Kenya will be hoping yet another major sporting event, after successfully hosting the I-double A-F World Junior Championships as the East African nation raises its sports portfolio in Africa and the World. Wazir Khamsin, CGTN, Nairobi.