Kenya Under 17 football team will be seeking to qualify for the first time at the Africa Nations Cup when they open the Cecafa campaign against South Sudan in pool B at the Cecafa Junior Championships to be staged in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Pool B, consisting of the Djibouti, Uganda and Ethiopia, the will be using the tournament as part of their qualifier to the Nations Cup to be staged in the same.
In 2018, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided that Zoning will be used as part of qualifiers with each region producing two representatives.
With East Africa hosting the Championship, only the winner of the tournament will qualify or if Tanzania wins, the losing finalist will earn that ticket.
Kenya finished fourth in last year’s tournament played in Burundi after losing 4-1 to Uganda in the play off. They had won 4-0 against Burundi, drawn 0-0 with Ethiopia and lost 1-0 to Somalia in their group matches.
They went on to lose 2-1 to eventual champions Tanzania in the semis. This year, Amenga believes he has a stronger team hence a bigger chance of making it to the final.
Kenya has never played in the continental championship and with them coming closer to home in Tanzania, there will be motivation enough for them to fight for the lone ticket.