President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, May 26 received the 18-carat gold FIFA World Cup trophy at State House, Nairobi.

The much coveted trophy is in the country for the third time, and is scheduled for it two-day tour head of this year's World Cup in Qatar.

Legendary Brazilian footballer Juliano Belleti who is also the country's coach and current World Cup-winning defender is accompanying the trophy in its tour, and he handed it to the Head of State as its custodian.

The trophy will then be on display at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) for public viewing and photo session on Friday, May 27.

In attendance were Cabinet Secretaries for Sports Amina Mohamed, Trade’s Betty Maina and Najib Balala of Tourism, Nairobi Governor Anne Kananu and the officials of Coca Cola.

Coca-Cola vice president, East and Central African franchise, Debrah Mallowah said they were happy to receive the trophy.

"As a country, we are delighted to receive the original trophy and am asking the fans to turn up in large numbers for the public viewing and take pictures," said Mallowah.

This comes during a time when the country is still banned from FIFA, which has raised eyebrows over the county's eligibility to host the trophy, due to the sanctions imposed by the governing body needing Kenya to disband the government-led caretaker committee in charge of football.

 This led to the barring of the national football teams from competing in international assignments as well as the striking off of Kenyan referees in the list of officiating at the World Cup.

CS Amina remained adamant in her decision to keep the caretaker committee operational to counter fraud in the football sector by the disbanded Football Federation of Kenya (FKF).

She recently reinstated some of them in the 12-member Transition Committee chaired by Justice (Rtd.) Aaron Ringera and a 6-member Secretariat led by former KTN news anchor, Lindah Oguttu to ensure the smooth transition to the next phase of managing the country's football affairs.