NAIROBI, Kenya, July 3, 2026 – The national women’s football team will take nothing short of a semi-final slot at this month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in Morocco.
Marion Serenge, one of the key pillars of the team, says the ultimate objective is to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Brazil by securing a berth in the last four of the continental championships.
“Since we resumed training, everyone has been pushing themselves because we know the task that is ahead. As a team and as a technical bench, we are working very hard towards making it to the semis so that we can reach the World Cup,” she said.
As far as playing at the most glamorous stage of all, Serenge is more than familiar albeit at the junior level.
She was part of the Under 17 team that made history as the first Kenyan football side to play at a World Cup, specifically in the Dominican Republic in November 2024.
Games against the who-is-who in women’s football, including North Korea, England and Mexico provided an invaluable experience that has catapulted Serenge’s career from one level to the next.
Now a key piece of head coach Beldine Odemba’s philosophy, Serenge will be one to count upon as Starlets seek to contradict the bookmakers who have marked them as one of the minnows of the tournament.
A scion of a sporting family, Marion is the daughter of former Kenyan footballer Fred Serenge, as well as the younger sister of Amwayi Serenge.
Should her talent shine brightest at Wafcon, Starlets will be good for it.
They play hosts Morocco in the competition’s opening game on July 26, meeting Senegal four days later.
By the time they lock horns with Algeria on August 2, Kenyans — and all those who love the Starlets — hope that Odemba’s charges will have booked their slot in the round of 16 in the 24-team tournament.
It would mark a huge step towards the realisation of their World Cup dream, a huge morale booster to keep pushing on to higher heights.
