Kenya’s last success in the girls’ football competition came in 2018 when Kwale Girls lifted the regional crown, and the latest setback means the country will have to wait at least another year for an opportunity to end the drought.
St. Joseph’s Girls, the reigning Kenyan champions, suffered the more painful exit after finishing third in Group B despite completing their campaign unbeaten.
JOGA collected six points from four matches, recording one victory and three draws while scoring four goals and conceding only one for a +3 goal difference.
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Their defensive solidity, however, could not compensate for the points dropped in three stalemates.
Their fate was eventually decided after Uganda’s Boni Consili edged Alliance Girls 1-0 in the final Group B match, result that lifted the Ugandan side to seven points and pushed the Kenyan champions into third place by a single point.
The Kitale side were therefore left to rue missed opportunities in matches where victory could have changed the complexion of their campaign, with their unbeaten record offering little consolation after failing to turn enough draws into wins.
Nyakach Girls endured a more turbulent route in Group A, finishing third with seven points after five matches.
The Nyanza-based side recorded two wins, one draw and two defeats, scoring four goals and conceding the same number to finish with a neutral goal difference.
Their hopes of reaching the last four were effectively extinguished on Matchday Four when they suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Rwanda’s PSB Huye.
That result left the Kenyan side needing a combination of results to keep their qualification hopes alive, but although they responded with a 1-0 victory over Tanzania’s Fountain Gate in their final match.
Ultimately, the points collected proved not enough to lift them into the top two.
The win over Fountain Gate at least allowed Nyakach to finish their campaign on a positive note, but by then their destiny had already slipped beyond their control.
The simultaneous elimination of the two Kenyan sides leaves the semi-finals heavily tilted towards Uganda, with three of the four remaining teams coming from the country.
