NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 4 – The National Assembly Committee on Sports says it is pleased with the work put in at the new look Nyayo National Stadium, but is concerned with the maintenance and the destruction threat posed by hooliganism.
The committee led by Machakos Town Member of Parliament Victor Munyaka visited the facility on an inspection tour on Thursday where they were briefed on the progress by Sports Kenya Director General Pius Metto and chairman Fred Muteti.
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“The committee is pleased by the progress of the work at Nyayo National Stadium and we have been assured that in the next one week, the contractor will be able to handover the keys and it will be ready to use as soon as the issues of COVID-19 are finished,” Munyaka said.
He however added; “One key thing and this committee has discussed is that for this good investment to be protected we need investment on crowd control and security within the stadia and its environs so that we don’t have hooligans coming in to destroy the property.”
The threat of the plastic seats all round the stadium as well as the glass exterior at the Main VIP entrance have been touted as possible target by hooligans, same challenge the Moi Sports Centre Kasarani has faced.
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Meanwhile, Webuye East MP Dan Wanyama, a former national volleyball team captain has also called on Sports Kenya to contract a private firm to work on the facility’s maintenance, saying they will do a better job.
Nyayo has been closed since 2017 for renovations and when Capital Sports visited the stadium last week, Sports Kenya assured it will be finalized by the end of May.
The contractor team is currently working on the landscaping as well as the drainage with a huge section of the stadium already done. Changing rooms and VIP areas are all done while all seats have been finally laid out.
Meanwhile, Muteti has thanked the committee for pushing their financial agenda to ensure that the project is fully funded.
“When we started the challenge was budget but the committee assured they would support us and we have seen a lot of support which has enabled us to complete Nyayo and we are also in the process of finalizing Kasarani for the World Athletics events,” Muteti stated.
After Nyayo, the Committee also visited Kasarani and inspected the renovation works ongoing.
Also, Muteti has stated that the process of replacing the tartan track will be done in the next financial circle, pointing out they will only repair the work out sections of the current track and clean it up.
There was hope that the track will be replaced in time for the Continental Tour with Nyayo looked at as an alternative to Kasarani.
At the same time, the committee states it will continue inspecting works at other stadia across the country before they present their report to the Speaker of the National Assembly.
