THE 2017 Africa Cup of Nations could be held jointly by the East African Community member states if a proposal by Football Kenya Federation (FKF) comes to pass.

Following the withdrawal of Libya, FKF has proposed a plan for a joint bid with its East African neighbours to host the bi-annual tournament.

"We view this as another opportunity to bring Africa’s greatest soccer showpiece to our great nation and coming so soon after Caf handed us rights to host 2018 Orange Caf Africa Nations Championships. We are also open to exploring possibilities of putting a joint bid with our neighbours Tanzania, who have already showed interest and Uganda as well as Rwanda ,” the FKF chairman Sam Nyamweya said in a statement onMonday.

The statement added that FKF is in the process of consultations with relevant stakeholders and government before submitting the bid to beat the September 30 deadline.

Kenya were awarded the rights to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996 but pulled out to due to lack of funding with South Africa hosting the event and winning it.

Kenya is set to also host the Africa Nations Championship (Chan) in 2018, two years after Rwanda, which will host it in 2016.

When Libya decided not to host the competition due to the unstable security situation in the country, Caf’s Secretary General Hicham El Amrani dispatched a circular to all 54 member associations informing them of the decision and invited new bidders for the tournament.

Caf said that countries wishing to host the tournament have until September 30 this year to express their interest. The host country will be chosen at a meeting of the Executive Committee in 2015.