Government to roll out stadiums construction in December

The long wait for Jubilee Government’s pre-election pledge to construct five new stadiums across the country could soon be over after Sports Kenya Director General, Gordon Oluoch, announced the groundbreaking for seven facilities spread across the counties will start in the first week of December.

On Friday, the Government through Sports Kenya advertised tenders inviting contractors to bid for regional stadiums in Elgeyo Marakwet, Kiambu, Marsabit, Nyeri, Tharaka Nithi and Uasin Gishu counties with the proposed designs expected to be released next week.

“These stadiums will not be limited to the specific counties only; there will be cooperation with government as is the policy as we spread the program to other counties as well. Ksh1 billion hasbeen allocated for the project so we’ll see how far that can take us in a year.

“What we are advertising now are county stadiums. We’re looking for strategic partners before we can start rolling out three national stadiums in Nairobi, Mombasa and one in the Rift Valley,” Oluoch told Citizen TV.

“The designs are getting out next week so that by the time we identify these contractors. All the necessary feasibility studies, field studies have all been done.”

The Government appeared to have backtracked on their pledge to construct five new national sports stadiums in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Garissa when Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario declared in March that the focus had been shifted to the development of facilities at county level, a decision that sparked a huge public uproar with many crying foul with the sudden change in plans.

At the time, Wario cited a fruitless search for land as the main reason behind the change of ideas his Treasury counterpart; Henry Rotich having allocated Sports Kenya KSh1.8 billion towards financing the building of the three stadiums a year earlier.

In an interview with Citizen Digital on Thursday, Wario explained spreading the new stadia across the country creates more avenues to tap and select talent from while also helping in the diversification of sports into the less popular disciplines such as tennis, swimming and squash.