Former Gor Mahia coach Bob Oyugi has revealed why Engin Firat’s Kenya national team Harambee Stars suffered back to back defeats against Cameroon in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
The East African nation suffered a huge blow in their quest to qualify for the 35th edition of the tournament in Morocco after losing their match day three and four fixtures against the Indomitable Lions.
Kenya suffered a 4-1 defeat in the first round meeting at Japoma Stadium in Douala on Friday, October 11 before losing 1-0 against the five time African champions in the reverse fixture at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Uganda on Monday, October 14.
The two defeats coupled with Zimbabwe’s two consecutive wins against Namibia saw Kenya drop to third on the log with four points with only two matches remaining to end the qualification round.
For Zimbabwe, they beat the Brave Warriors 1-0 at Orlando Stadium in South Africa and 3-1 at the same venue to move to second on the group with eight points, two less leaders Cameroon and thus dislodging Kenya.
Kenya Deserves Updated Manager with Proper Chemistry
According to Oyugi, Firat’s claims after the Cameroon defeat that Kenya lost because of lacking accuracy were uncalled for and that the Turkish tactician should carry the blame for his failure to establish a consistent squad for Harambee Stars.
“Against Cameroon, the coach Engin (Firat) had to fail as he lacked to establish a consistent team – in simple terms – he keeps changing players in every game,” Oyugi told SportsBoom.com in an exclusive interview.
“Secondly, he still needs more experience on Cup of Nations, and lastly the coach should have more time with the players by attending more games in the local Kenyan Premier League. He needs to grace as many matches as possible to see the quality that we have and get players, whom he can stick with.”
Oyugi continued: “Firat blames “lack of accuracy” for the defeats against Cameroon, but I tend to disagree. Harambee Stars- is currently a team of professionals that deserves a well updated manager with proper chemistry of fielding a homogeneous team and the ability of learning each players mental state.
“Harambee Stars- has some of the most talented players in this championship. As their manager, you possibly needed to have worked on their correctness or precision before those painful results.”
Time is Up for First to leave Harambee Stars’ Role
Oyugi did not hesitate to call for Football Kenya Federation (FKF) office led by President Nick Mwendwa to move with speed and fire Firat saying he was not good enough for the job.
“We are not being fair to our national team having Firat as the head coach. His comment of “we lost as a team in Cameroon” is as remote as his coaching ethics. It is high time FKF explained to Kenyans how they hired Firat,” added Oyugi.
In a recent interview with SportsBoom.com, Firat confessed that Kenya’s chances to qualify for the tournament in the North African nation are now slim following the defeats against Cameroon.
“We will not give up, we understand the situation, after Zimbabwe win against Namibia it means it is not in our hands anymore but for us it doesn’t change our target to qualify, we have to go for the remaining two matches to win and these we will try and hopefully get a good outcome,” Firat told SportsBoom.com.
“In this group everybody expected the result will be very similar, nobody expected Namibia to lose so many matches especially after Namibia played in January AFCON, they were a very good side but now they have gone out of the group, therefore, we don’t want to give up but we are not in the situation which we had wanted to be from the start of the campaign.”
Kenya will face Zimbabwe on November 11 before winding up their group matches with a home game against Namibia on November 19.
