Kenya bring smile to Benni’s face

Benni McCarthy’s Kenya romped to a 4-0 win over Lesotho in Atteridgeville on Sunday in the biggest win for the South African coach since he took over as Kenya boss 15 months ago.

The friendly international was preparation for Kenya before the start of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in September, participating in the preliminaries despite the fact that they are one of the host nations.

Kenya had drawn 1-1 with Lesotho at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Thursday but got off to a swift start on Sunday as Mohammed Bajaber converted Zech Obiero’s cross with the Basotho defence caught out.

There had been criticism of the Harambee Stars’ performance following Thursday’s stalemate in the first of what were two hastily arranged games after Kenya pulled out of a planned trip to Kyrgyzstan.

But with settled nerves after the early goal on Sunday, Kenya took command of proceedings and went into the break in the lead.

Bajaber scored again in the 51st minute to double the lead, prompting McCarthy to make a raft of changes, including taking off Polokwane City goalkeeper Brian Bwire.

Lawrence Okoth made it 3-0 with seven minutes remaining, latching onto a chip over the Basotho defence and then adding another goal in the 87th minute with Babajer this time the provider.

Kenya will compete in the same qualifying group for the Cup of Nations with South Africa although they are already qualified as co-hosts.