The Confederation of African Football (CAF) cited "accumulated delays" in the country's preparations for the tournament, the continental championship for players playing in their home leagues.

CAF made the decision to take the tournament away from Kenya at an executive committee meeting in Accra, Ghana, on Saturday, and opened the bidding process for a new host on Sunday.

The organisation said applications must be received by next Sunday, with the new host being announced in just over two weeks.

The African Nations Championship is scheduled to be played from Jan. 12-Feb. 4.

Kenya's preparations for the 16-team tournament were already troubled before August when its presidential elections were nullified and a re-vote ordered.

That re-vote is scheduled for next month, and the political instability has meant preparations for the tournament have been undermined.

CAF also said it was opening a tender process to recruit an audit firm to examine Cameroon's preparations for the 2019 African Nations Cup, Africa's main football event.

Like Kenya, Cameroon's readiness to host the Nations Cup has been under scrutiny, and CAF said it needed to examine the state of Cameroon's "infrastructure to host the tournament," with the 2019 event the first to be expanded from 16 to 24 teams.