Sports Principal Secretary, Jonathan Mueke, has pledged to deliver a complete Ruring’u stadium within the next six months to one year.
Mueke has at the same time put the contractor working on the 20,000-seater capacity facility on notice to either complete the pending construction works or face the axe.
Speaking when he toured the stadium, the PS revealed that the Ministry of Sports would be taking a leading role in ensuring that the stadium is completed before the end of this year.
He said that he would be partnering with the Nyeri County government, Sports Kenya and the local elected leaders to resolve the stalemate that has seen the facility’s completion stall for six years.
“We have seen a lot of challenges. The first challenge is obvious, which is the fact that the construction has been behind schedule for a very long time. Very little has been done compared to what had been planned,” said Mueke.
“We are going to sit down jointly with the County Government of Nyeri, Sports Kenya plus the local leadership so that we can put our heads together and solve the challenges to ensure that we complete this facility in the shortest time possible,” he added.
Earlier, Mueke together with Sports Kenya Officials, Nyeri Town legislator Duncan Maina, Nyeri County Deputy County Commissioner Joseph Mwangi, and the County Sports Chief Officer, Joe Gethi inspected the different parts of the stadium and expressed disappointment over the slow progress of construction and the poor quality of work done in sections of the stadium.
“We have challenges with the pitch and we have advised the contractor to redo it because the grass is not done to our standards. The artificial track is also peeling off. The biggest issue is the schedule and we have asked the contractor to draw a new program of works that is going to specify every task and milestone until the stadium is complete to our specifications. That program should come with very clear timelines that we should follow,” said the PS.
The stadium was commissioned by retired president Uhuru Kenyatta in June 2017, and was poised to be the biggest sporting facility in the Mount Kenya region featuring a modern changing room, a sports shop, a restaurant, spectator terraces and a VIP terrace.
Initially the project was supposed to be completed in December 2020, but has stalled thrice owing to various reasons including delayed payment to the initial contractor.
At the time of the commissioning, the uplift was to take place in two phases with the first phase costing Sh230 million, while Sh220 million was set aside for the final phase. In all, the upgrade was to cost the taxpayer Sh450 million. The Sports PS however stated that funding for the flagship project was still available and placed the blame squarely on the contractor for failing to work within the stipulated timelines.
“There is no cash delay. In fact, this is one of the projects in the country whose problem is not money. The problem is elsewhere and it is both unique and sad that a project whose money is committed and available is behind schedule six years down the line,” said Mueke.
Nyeri Town MP, Duncan Maina said the delay was denying the county the opportunity to host national events and called for the project to be completed expeditiously.
He termed the current status of the facility as an example of how government projects should not be done adding that the structure had turned the county to an embarrassment amongst the sports fraternity.
“This year we lost the opportunity to host the Kenya Inter-Counties Sports and Cultural Association Games. Unfortunately, when they came and assessed the stadium, we lost to Narok. My dream is that by the time we are hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, Ruringu stadium will be ready for consideration. At this point all parties should come up with a consensus on how to complete this facility,” stated Maina.
By Wangari Mwangi
