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| Section of Kasarani stadium.Courtesy Picture |
The much anticipated handing over of the renovation works of the Moi
International Sports Centre, Kasarani to the government aborted,
yet again in Nairobi.
This was the second time the function has aborted. It was initially
scheduled for last week but was postponed to yesterday before it
failed to take place again.
The Chinese ambasadeur to Kenya Liu Guanyuan was supposed to hand over
the facility to the Kenyan government officials but was told to
wait.
Assistant minister for Youth and Sports Kabando Wa Kabando told the
Chinese delegation at the facility that the Kenyan government
officials will first go through the stadium’s status report before
signing the hand over document.
“The Sports Stadia Management Board (SSMB) should give the minister
for Youth and Sports Dr Paul Otuoma the status report for evaluation
before presiding the handing over ceremony in his office,” he said.
Kabando said they will invite the ambasadeur and Chinese delegation to
the Sports ministry’s headquarters where the signing will take place.
“We want to work diligently and therefore we are going to invite you
at our ministry’s headquarters once we have studied and are satisfied
with the status report,” he said.
Otuoma was not at Kasarani for the function as he was attending a
cabinet meeting. Present were Kabando, Youth and Sports Permanent
Secretary James Waweru, Commissioner for Sports Gordon Oluoch and
Kenya National Sports Council (KNSC) chairman Nderitu Gikaria among
others.
The Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, was closed down in
December, 2009 till April this year in major renovations estimated to
have cost about Sh1 billion which was being met by the Government of
the Peoples' Republic of China through a grant.
The contract for the repair work was been given to a Chinese firm,
Shengli Engineering Construction Company Limited.
The areas to undergo construction included refurbishment of the tartan
track in the main stadium, fitting of score boards in the main
stadium, the gymnasium, and the Aquatic stadium.
It also included fitting of new cables, fire alarm systems, air
conditioners and installation of new sound systems which includes
speakers and amplifiers.
New tiles for the swimming pool, floors and walls and roof and sound
proof tiles for the press rooms were in the plan in the first phase.
The project also included the renovation of the gymnasium,
dormitories, sitting stands and the state of the art VIP section.
In the second phase it will include water sports facilities and
motosports facilities.
Since completion of the renovation works in April, the cathedral of
Kenyan sports has hosted the 2014 World Cup qualifier between Harambee
Stars and Malawi as well as this year’s Africa Swimming Championships
that ended on Sunday among other high profile events.
The country’s teams to the Olympics and Paralympics games in London
were also housed there during their training camp for both events.
The renovations forced organisers of major sporting events to cancel
them and they included among the top international competitions
affected were the 17th Senior Africa Athletics Championship , the
Africa Women's volleyball club championship and the Africa Senior
swimming Championships all in 2010.
The Kenya Premier League (KPL) matches in Nairobi were being played at
the Nyayo National Stadium and the Nairobi City Council (NCC) owned
Nairobi City Stadium.
In 2010, the Africa Senior Swimming championships were shifted to
Morocco owing to the r
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