After five years of delay, the Nyeri County Government recently pledged that the Ruring’u Stadium would be completed by the end of the year.
Joseph Mwangi, the deputy county commissioner for Nyeri, acknowledged that the rebuilding of the historic stadium has been delayed. He claims that after meeting with the contractor, they have come to an agreement to complete the 20,000-seat stadium before the end of the year.
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According to Mwangi, it is shameful that the stadium’s construction has not yet been completed. Construction work on the stadium started five years ago. He said that Kirigiti Stadium, which is almost three times the size of Ruring’u, is still in use.
He added that they had difficulties with the contractor. Mwangi said that his office worked hard and pushed the contractor to complete the project. He guaranteed people that by the end of the year, the stadium would be running.
Duncan Maina, a member of parliament for Nyeri Town, expressed his disappointment with the stadium’s construction project’s sluggish development.
Prior to this, Maina had said that it was the duty of Sports Kenya and the County Commissioner’s office to fix any issues that the contractor was having in order for the project to be concluded.
He said that the Ruring’u stadium is among the projects that exemplify how government initiatives should not be executed. The facility is an embarrassment to the previous regime. The former head of state laid the foundation on June 20, 2017.
How much will it cost to facelift the Ruring’u stadium
The stadium will be the biggest sporting arena in the Mount Kenya region. Its facelift will cost the taxpaying public Sh450 million.
The stadium will serve as a training ground for emerging athletes. Additionally, it will host athletic and football events because of the high altitude in Nyeri County.
The facility has a VIP terrace, a restaurant, a sports shop, and a modern changing room. The installation of a surveillance system for the top-notch sporting facility had also been planned initially.
The project was initially slated to be concluded in December 2020, but it’s been delayed three times for a number of reasons, including late payments to the initial contractor.
Following a plea from Kikuyu elders to perform a ritual on the site before uprooting a Mugumo tree that was reportedly planted by the late president Daniel Moi in 1978, construction of the fence was put on hold last year.
