CS Amina says monster Nyayo to be complete in March

President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage to ensure the country’s top stadia are completed by March this year as the clock ticks down to the IAAF World U20 Championships.

The Cabinet Secretary for Sport Amina Mohammed described the prolonged delay of renovation works at the Nyayo National Stadium as an ‘eye-sore’ after conducting a brief inspection tour of the facility on Wednesday.

Nyayo was part of the four stadia earmarked to host the 2018  African Nations Championship (Chan) hence was closed for an upgrade to meet international standards but lack of sufficient funds has seen the works stall.

Botched stadia projects has become a prominent highlight of failed campaign promises by the Government but CS Amina says President Kenyatta remains committed to fulfilling that pledge.

“We have done our homework and we have agreed that as we move forward, we don’t have this site ‘greeting us here’. We will finish this work as quickly as possible because the facility has become an eye sore for Kenyans who see this ‘monster’ each time they pass here. The president has given very clear instructions on the deadline,” she said.

The minister who was flanked by her new Principal Secretary Joe Okudo and his Public Works counterpart Gordon Kihalangwa said she was keen to oversee the completion of the stalled renovations works at the multi-purpose stadium and other sporting facilities in the country.

“We have had discussions with everybody concerned and the Ministry of Public Works being the project manager for this stadium, we are going to work closely with them to ensure everything runs smoothly,” she added.

Kenya will host the World U20 Championships in Nairobi between July 7 to 12, 2020 with the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani Stadium and Nyayo National Stadium set to be used as the venues.

“We will be sending a team to Kasarani also tomorrow (Thursday) to look at what needs to be done there so that we can know what is required and how much time it will take. Therefore in the very near future we will have these two stadia functioning efficiently,” she revealed.

The CS was however coy on discussing why the facility has been far away from completion since it was closed down for renovation three years ago.