Harambee Starlets land tough group at 2026 WAFCON

Kenya senior women’s national football team - Harambee Starlets - have landed a tough group for this year’s 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), following a draw conducted in Rabat, Morocco on Thursday, 15 January.

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Starlets, who are making a return to the continental championships for the first time since 2016, have been placed in Group A, where they will come up against tournament hosts Morocco, Senegal and Algeria.

Coincidentally, Kenya was the first nation to be drawn out in the draw conducted at the Mohammed VI Football Complex, with the ball from Pot 4 being pulled out by the country’s head coach, Beldine Odemba, who was serving as one of the two draw assistants.

Kenya is among the 16 nations that will take part in this year’s tournament in Morocco, which will be played across four venues in three cities from Tuesday, 17 March to Friday, 3 April.

As per the draw procedure, Kenya, who qualified for WAFCON in November after running out 4-1 aggregate winners over The Gambia, found themselves in the pot consisting of lowly-ranked countries, joining Cape Verde, Tanzania and Malawi.

Only two nations - hosts Morocco and defending champions Nigeria - were seeded, and they occupied slots in Group A and C respectively.

One team from each pot (1,2,3,4) was then drawn into Groups A and D, and it was such that Kenya was pulled out from the pot first, joining Morocco, then later Senegal (A3) and Algeria (A2).

Starlets in land of giants

As per the latest FIFA rankings, Kenya is the lowest-ranked of the nations in Group A, occupying position 133, and is also the one that has the least experience at WAFCON (two editions).

Hosts Morocco, who are 66th in the world, will be making their fifth appearance at this year’s edition, having also made it to the final in 2024, only to end up as runners-up behind Nigeria.

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Senegal, on the other hand, are positioned 81 in the FIFA rankings, and will be on their fourth appearance in the competition, having featured in 2012, 2022, and 2024.

Algeria, ranked 73rd globally, will be on their seventh trip to WAFCON, and in the last edition advanced past the group stages for their first time in history.

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Of importance, Kenya will look to make a better impression of themselves when they rock up at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, where all Group A matches will be held.

During their WAFCON debut in 2016, Kenya exited the championships without a win, as they lost all their Group B matches in Cameroon to Ghana, Mali and Nigeria.

FULL DRAW: