Construction of Ol Kalou stadium gobbles up millions but not yet complete
David Macharia
There is concern that the construction of Ol Kalou stadium is gobbling up more money than it was intended with nothing to show for it.
With Sh107 million of public funds having been spent on the project since 2015, questions are now being asked as to whether the project will see light of day.
Members of Nyandarua County Assembly Committee on Youth, Sports and Arts toured the project last week and had a lot of reservations about the quality of work that has been done in the last five years compared to the amount of money spent.
Committee chairman Rimui Kaiyani said the team is going to compile a report on its findings.
Despite the staggering amount of money already spent on the project, the county government allocated a further Sh50 million in its 2019/2020 budget to the facility.
County Officer for Youth, Isaac Waithaka, told the committee that from the Sh50 million, Sh15 million will be used to pay pending bills and the remaining Sh35 million will be used to build terraces.
The committee wondered why the construction of drainage, landscaping and pitch irrigation was yet to start despite Sh9 million being allocated for the purpose.
Waithaka told the committee that Sh5 million out of the Sh9 million was moved to the county Covid-19 kitty and the balance “enhanced other mechanical works.”
“Drainage is one of the most important aspects in any stadium which ought to have come second after fencing the field,” said the committee vice-chairman Joseph Kariuki.
Murungaru MCA KariukiMuchiri recommended that the pitch be redone for better leveling.
Nyandarua is among the counties that did not have a standard stadium by the time Kenya embraced devolution in 2013.
Youth, Sports and the Arts executive Dominic Murani is, however, adamant that the county will have a modern stadium with a capacity to hold about 30,000 people by December next year.
The work on the Ol Kalou Stadium started in 2016 but was stopped briefly due the change of guard at the county governor’s office in 2017.
Governor Francis Kimemia refused to take over ongoing projects initiated by the man he defeated, Daniel Waithaka, “until an audit is done.” It is not known if the stadium project was ever audited.
Murani promised that by end of this year, the VIP dais and the perimeter wall will be complete and that the stadium will be fit to use.
