Their inclusion means 48 men's teams are set to be drawn into 12 groups of four at the SuperSport studios in Johannesburg.

The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) were suspended by the FIFA Council in February due to Government interference in their affairs, with the decisions ratified at the global body's Congress in Doha last month.

The FIFA Council has the power to lift the suspensions once certain requirements are met.

Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers are due to begin on May 30, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has set a deadline of two weeks prior to this date for the suspensions to be lifted in order for Kenya and Zimbabwe to take part.

If the ZIFA and FKF are unsuccessful in securing the lifting of these measures in time, their qualifying groups will run with three rather than four teams.

As a result of this, Kenya and Zimbabwe cannot be drawn together to avoid the potential of a group only featuring two teams.

The FKF Executive Board was dissolved by the Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage Amina Mohamed in November for alleged mismanagement of funds, with a Caretaker Committee established initially with a six-month lifespan.

FKF President Nick Mwendwa was originally arrested on corruption charges, but these were dropped in December.

FIFA criticised the Kenyan Government and rejected the Caretaker Committee's right to govern Kenyan football.

The ZIFA Board was suspended by the Zimbabwe Sports and Recreation Commission in November for alleged misuse of public funds and reported sexual abuse of female match officials.

Zimbabwe have qualified for the last three editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, while Kenya last reached the tournament in 2019.

Next year's Africa Cup of Nations is due to be held in Ivory Coast from June 23 to July 23.

Teams have been placed into pots based on their FIFA world rankings for the qualifying draw, with Kenya in pot two and Zimbabwe in pot three.

Teams are due to face each other home and away in their groups of four, with the process concluding in March 2023 and the top two advancing to the main tournament.

Ivory Coast are in the draw despite automatically qualifying as hosts, meaning only one other team from their group will progress.

Botswana, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Sudan, Lesotho, Eswatini and The Gambia all had to win preliminary-round head-to-heads to reach the qualifying group stage.

The draw is set to be conducted by CAF director of competitions Samson Adamu, former South Africa international Lucas Radebe and former Ivory Coast international Salomon Kalou.

Senegal beat Egypt in the final  to win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time at the delayed 2021 edition in Cameroon earlier this year.