The Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret has been proposed as one of the venues that will host the 2027 Afcon games under the Pamoja bid involving the three East African nations— Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The stadium located in Eldoret town along the Iten road is named after legendary athlete Kipchoge Keino and is often used as a training facility for many local and international runners.
For many years, it remained a patchy ground with no semblance of a modern stadium until about ten years ago when the government started a plan to renovate and upgrade it to international standards with facilities for athletics, football and other indoor games.
However, the construction works to renovate the stadium have remained incomplete for the last decade although its face especially the inside arena was slightly improved last year when the town hosted the devolution conference.
More than Sh100 million has so far been used on renovations at the stadium amid constant controversies between the government and a contractor.
Successive ministers for sports have made tens of trips to supervise work at the stadium but it largely remains an eyesore amid fears it could turn into a white elephant.
Soon after the devolution conference, the East Africa Pamoja bid by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda won the rights to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and the government announced plans to renovate the Kipchoge Stadium as one of the venues for the tournament.
On September 19, Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba was in Eldoret to hand over the stadium to the military to carry out the renovation and upgrading works in a speedy manner in readiness for the Afcon 2027.
Under the new plan, the military working with architects from the University of Nairobi have been contracted to improve the stadium to international standards including increasing its sitting capacity to more than 20,000.
“Although much of the work already done by the previous contractors will be retained, there will be much more work to turn the stadium into a world-class facility that will host the Afcon games,” said CS Namwamba.
Some of the key renovation works expected to be undertaken by the military are improving the sitting areas and also putting up a roof around all the sitting space.
The same roof will also be fitted with modern lighting systems so that the facility can easily host night events.
The roof will have solar panels for the lighting system. “We will use renewable energy considering the country is moving towards fully adopting green energy. We will also have a safe way in place to manage solid waste,” said the CS.
Other major renovation works expected include the completion of the parking areas, drainage system, perimeter fence and roads that will lead into and out of the stadium.
Although the stadium is already fitted with a tartan track for athletics, a new one is expected to be fitted as part of the work to be undertaken by KDF.
Once the stadium is completed, it will be available for all-purpose use including by the host Uasin Gishu county government and other stakeholders.
But three months since the CS handed over the facility to KDF officials, there has been no work at the site with officials indicating that they are still working on the budget and other requirements before work commences in the next few months.
Part of the funding required will have to go through the budgeting process before the Ministry of Sports is allocated the resources.
Governor for Uasin Gishu Dr. Jonathan Bii says they are hopeful that the stadium will be completed as planned by the national government so that residents of the region can also benefit by using it.
“We are proud of our president’s decision to have Eldoret host the Afcon games and with the completion of the stadium we will be set for the major event because we have many other facilities in place including the international airport and the Moi referral hospital among others”, says Bii.
Bii says completion of the stadium will be timely considering the town is about to be elevated to city status and can’t be complete without a world-class sporting facility.
“Uasin Gishu is a royal county because it’s home to our President and we fully support his vision for our country, especially the youth who will be the greatest beneficiaries of projects like the Kipchoge Keino Stadium,” said Bii.
The government plan is to make the facility the first one outside Nairobi to be rated as international and they also hope Uasin Gishu being the home of champions will also be able to host top athletics events.
The completion of the stadium will also be boosted by the ongoing construction of the 64 Stadium under a separate programme funded by the World Bank.
The 64 stadium work will cost about Sh1 billion has taken just about a year and the facility is about three-quarters complete. Uasin Gishu sports executive, Lucy Ngendo says Eldoret will be a major sports hub once the two facilities are completed.
