Mookh ticketing website has revealed that the online ticketing portal for the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) went down earlier on Tuesday, August 19, because of a huge presence of automated bots.

The ticketing firm issued a statement more than three hours after the portal crashed, as sales for the upcoming CHAN quarter final between Kenya and Madagascar at Kasarani Stadium were set to begin from 12 noon.

According to Mookh, the minute ticket sales had opened, the bots had swarmed its systems, locking out genuine fans from purchasing tickets, which were going for as low as Ksh250.

“Dear Kenyan Fans, we know how important it is for you to have a fair chance at getting tickets, and we’ve heard your frustration loud and clear.

“When sales opened at 12 pm, our system was overwhelmed by automated bots, preventing genuine fans from securing tickets as intended,” Mookh explained in part.

The firm, however, assured that “Our team is actively working to stop this so that tickets go to fans — not bots. Thank you for your patience and for standing by us. Tickets will be back on sale very soon!”

The site went down shortly after ticket sales opened on Tuesday. The match had drawn massive demand, with supporters rushing online to secure tickets when the sales opened at noon.

However, instead of purchasing access, thousands were greeted with error messages and frozen pages, sparking frustration across social media. As observed by Viral Tea, they were met with “Error 1200: This website has been temporarily rate-limited.”

“Too many requests for chan.mookh.com. Try again later,” read another message from the website.

The game is set for Friday at 5:00 p.m. EAT at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, but most fans who tried buying tickets from noon were unsuccessful, likely because of the massive demand.

Harambee Stars’ previous four group matches have all sold out, with many supporters missing out on entry even after showing up at the stadium.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) slapped the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) with a Ksh 12.8 million fine over security lapses witnessed in five matches staged in Nairobi.

Disruptions at Kasarani during Kenya’s clash with Morocco on Sunday, August 10, led CAF to impose restrictions on the stadium’s capacity for the Harambee Stars’ remaining fixtures in the tournament.

CAF further cautioned that failure to comply with the new directives could attract tougher penalties, including shifting Kenya’s home games to different venues.

For Kenya’s final group match at Kasarani on Sunday, only 27,000 spectators were admitted into the 48,000-capacity arena, while the rest had to follow the game from home or designated fan zones across Nairobi.

On Monday, August 19, Sports Cabinet Secretary (CS) Salim Mvurya confirmed that no incidents of disorder or breaches of CAF regulations were recorded during Harambee Stars’ 1-0 win over Zambia.