NAIROBI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- After an agonizing 15-year wait to dine at the high table of continental football, one would expect Kenyan fans to be buzzing at the prospect of their national team, Harambee Stars, lining up at the June 21 to July 19 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Egypt.
In reality, many supporters are sceptical the final 23-man team selected by Sebastien Migne on Tuesday from his native France is capable of making an impact in the expanded 24-team competition.
Kenya will face 1994 champions, the Desert Foxes of Algeria, neighbors Tanzania Taifa Stars and the Lions of Teranga from Senegal in a tough Group C where the east African nation will attempt to make it out of the preliminary round in their sixth AFCON appearance.
During their last outing in Tunisia 2004, Kenya registered their first ever victory at the tournament when they blanked Burkina Faso 3-0 in their final pool match but the result was academic since previous defeats to Mali (3-1) and Senegal (3-0) knocked them out of the competition.
Hired in May last year, Migne, a former Republic of Congo head coach rallied the team to seal qualification behind four-time champions Ghana in a group that was reduced to three when Sierra Leone were banned from the AFCON by the Confederation of African Football.
A memorable 1-0 victory over Ghana in Nairobi in September 2018 was the most significant result with Stars drawing 0-0 away to Ethiopia before they whipped the latter 3-0 at home to seal their qualification. A 0-1 reverse to Ghana in Accra this March proved yet again to be academic.
Hailed as a hero, Migne has however, come under much scrutiny in the football mad country since May when he announced his preliminary AFCON squad of 30 that was trimmed to 27 players he took to a three-week training camp in France at the end of May before unveiling his final 23 on Tuesday.
Initially, his selection of two goalkeepers from the same team, John Oyemba and Brian Bwire who play for local premier league side, Kariobangi Sharks FC as well as their former striker, Masud Juma, who has not played for the past five months brew up a storm.
Bwire was subsequently dropped from the side that travelled to France on May 29 but the omission of two of the country's premier league top scorers, Enosh Ochieng' (20) and Allan Wanga (18) in favor of Juma and youngsters Christopher Mbamba and John Avire brew up another storm.
Avire netted only seven in the 2018/19 Kenyan Premier League while Sweden based Mbamba who has Congolese extraction has found the target twice since last year playing for Oskarshamns AI and IK Oddevold in that order.
On Tuesday, Juma, who has not found the target in eight months made the final team where the Frenchman axed midfielders Clifton Miheso and Anthony Akumu as well as the injured duo of Mbamba and defender Brian Mandela.
Sceptics were quick to accuse Migne of bending into the whims of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President, Nick Mwendwa, who founded Sharks - a team based in the crime-infested low-income estate of Kariobangi in the eastern part of the Kenyan capital- in making his final calls for the AFCON.
However, besides Juma and Oyemba, the only other player with Sharks connections in the team is midfielder Ovella Ochieng' who now plays in Sweden for Vasalunds IF where he has scored only once since signing from the 2018 Kenyan domestic cup winners who finished ninth in the local league.
As Migne is discovering, Kenyans will always read controversy in anything and having been the subject of intense social and mainstream media debate for over a month, the head coach will be pressed to deliver to avoid the public axe falling on his head.
His omission of Zambia-based Zesco FC striker, Jesse Were who has been banging them in, then Wanga and Ochieng' in favor of Masud leaves him hoping that Japan-based Kashiwa Reysol's Michael Olunga, the main forward in his team, will deliver the goals in Egypt.
"In 2016 at Sony Sugar, when I was called to the national team, everyone supported me. When I was called to the U23 team while I was at Bandari, everyone also supported me.
"The criticism only started when I was called up while playing for Kariobangi Sharks, which is associated with the FKF President. So I think they don't hate me," said Juma who was the 2017 KPL Golden Boot winner where he fired Sharks to finish third on their top-flight debut with 17 goals.
He then explained his lack of playing time in Libya after moving to the North African state from Cape Town City FC of South Africa.
"I was hoping that I would do well in Libya but it is unfortunate that the political situation there couldn't allow me to settle. So right now I am fully focused on working hard for a place in the final AFCON team and hopefully, things will work out well," he added.
The only headache for the Frenchman before his team leaves for Cairo on June 19 is his defence with Musa Mohammed and Abud Omar who he included in his final team nursing injuries.
"It is not good for us and for him as well. Mohamed also picked up a knock (in Harambee Stars' friendly match against Madagascar). We cannot take a risk with him against DRC but he could be available for AFCON," he said of Mohammed, the former captain of domestic champions Gor Mahia FC.
"We won against Ghana without key players. It is always problematic for the coach but we will try to find a solution," the tactician outlined.
With the government pumping almost 250 million shillings (2.5 million U.S. dollars) of taxpayers' money into the preparations and participation of the team since the team made the 2019 AFCON finals, the performance of Stars in Egypt has attracted more examination than ever before.
Olunga who played for Guizhou Zhicheng in China League One backed the team to deliver at the AFCON.
"It's not only about us, there are so many young footballers coming up and I'm sure our performance in this competition will help put Kenya back in the African football map," said Olunga who is credited with 14 goals in 32 appearances for Kenya.
Stars captain and most famous footballer, Victor Wanyama, echoed his sentiments, promising they would give their best.
What is not in doubt is the Frenchman and his side are under the spotlight of a success-starved football nation and their performance in Egypt will go a long way to either disproving their detractors with a good show or adding fuel to the fire of condemnation that awaits them in case of failure.
