The National Assembly’s Sports Committee has turned down a proposal to increase Kenya’s AFCON 2027 budget with the country yet to submit Ksh3.5 billion hosting fee.
The Ministry of Sports has suffered a setback after its bid to increase its budget for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations was shot down by Parliament.
National Assembly Committee on Sports and Culture rejected a move by the Sports Ministry to raise Kenya’s AFCON 2027 hosting budget from Ksh3.5 billion to Ksh5 billion after Sports Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi said there was need for extra funds to meet the high standards.
According to Citizen Digital, Mwangi told the committee, which is chaired by Webuye East MP Dan Wanyama, that a recent visit to Morocco, who staged AFCON 2025, indicated that there is need for increased funding if Kenya has to stage a memorable tournament.
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Why Sports Ministry Wants Extra Money
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Morocco handed over the AFCON hosting flag to East Africa.
“We established that for Kenya to match the standards set during the competition in Morocco, we must enhance the budget,” Mwangi told the committee.
However, the committee shot down the proposal, telling the Ministry to stick to the amount that had been earlier agreed upon as Kenya, unlike Morocco, will not be staging the tournament alone but rather co-hosting it with neighbours Uganda and Tanzania.
“In fact, you should be cutting down your budget because the championship is being hosted by three states. Your push for an enhanced allocation should not be based on a country that single-handedly hosted AFCON,” Wanyama responded during deliberations on the 2026 Budget Policy Statement.
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Kenya, just like Tanzania and Uganda, are required to pay a hosting fee of Ksh3.5 billion to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The other two countries have already submitted their allocation but Kenya is lagging behind, putting the nation in the spotlight over its preparedness to host AFCON 2027.
Need to Stick to Set Budgetary Allocation
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Sports PS Elijah Mwangi had sought extra funding.
“Uganda and Tanzania, who are our co-hosts, have already complied by paying the required fee to secure the hosting rights,” Mwangi further told the committee, which insisted the shared nature of the tournament must be reflected on the budget.
Adding an extra Ksh1.5 billion would have gone above the limit given the proposed ceiling for the Sports Department in the 2026/27 financial year is Ksh25.49 billion, which includes Ksh.7.38 billion for recurrent expenditure and Ksh18.11 billion for development.
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The Wanyama-led committee, however, promised to engage the National Treasury to push for the quick release of the pending hosting fee whose delay is threatening to cast Kenya in a negative light as far as staging AFCON 2027 is concerned.
