Were, Calabar have not been convincing for Harambee Stars recently - Okwemba

Charles Okwemba has stated it was right for coach Francis Kimanzi to leave Zesco United duo Jesse Were and David Owino, who is popularly known as Calabar, out of the provisional Harambee Stars squad.

The tactician named the 34-man squad for the Fifa international friendly match on October 10 against Zambia at Nyayo Stadium. The AFC Leopards legend has stated the two players have done little in the recent past to convince the technical bench that they deserve an opportunity to play.

"First of all, I do not know the reason why they were not included in the team," Okwemba told Goal on Sunday.

"However, one thing I know, Were and Owino have not been doing well when on international duty, especially on recent assignments. Their performances in the team have been wanting, they have not been convincing and I feel their omission from the team is justified."

Harambee Stars are due to face Chipolopolo in a build-up match on Saturday, October 10, but according to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa, the government through the Sports Ministry is yet to give clearance for the match despite writing two requests over the last two weeks.

"The government promised that national teams will be given special exemptions to play international matches but until now we have not received any response from them despite writing twice, asking for the clearance for the friendly against Zambia," Mwendwa told Goal.

"We simply don’t know what is happening, the government said we write to them for clearance, and we have already done it twice but so far we don’t have any reply from them, so we don’t know if the friendly will go ahead as planned or not.

"We don’t have a venue to use for the match because the same government is yet to clear us to use either Kasarani or Nyayo Stadium, we are in the dark and it is very frustrating for us.

"The team will move to camp on Sunday, we have organised for all the players to be tested for the Covid-19 virus before they enter the camp, but moving to camp is not an issue, the issue is where will they train?

"We don’t know if we can use Kasarani or Nyayo, we want the Sports Ministry to move quickly and give us the way forward, or else the friendly will be called off."