Kenny's side have one win in their five qualifiers to date - at home to minnows Gibraltar - and sit behind France, the Netherlands and Greece in Group B.
The Republic host Greece and travel to Gibraltar in October's qualifiers.
"We want to finish the group strongly," Kenny said.
"We are still in contention for automatic qualification. It's not in our own hands, we are relying on results elsewhere.
"We have to see if we can take it to the November window and the only way we can do that is by taking six points from this window.
"It may not be enough, but we'd be kicking ourselves if we didn't do that and results did happen elsewhere.
"We do our side. We win the games we need to win and that starts with Greece on Friday."
The Republic have been boosted by the return of Brighton striker Evan Ferguson, who missed September's defeats by France and the Netherlands with a knee injury, although Blackburn's Sammie Szmodics, who was called up to replace Aaron Connolly following his withdrawal, has left the squad for family reasons.
Despite their precarious position in the group, with the top two teams qualifying for the tournament in Germany next summer, and the back door route through the Nations League player-offs also unlikely, Kenny says the motivation in his squad will still be as high as ever.
"Firstly, it's a huge honour just to put on the green shirt and to represent your country, especially in a qualifier," he added.
"The reality is, although it's an outside chance, mathematically we still have a chance. As long as that is the case, we must give everything of ourselves all the time.
"That's not in question. I think they will be hugely motivated, the players, to try to fulfil their potential in this game."
