The government through the ministry of sports has warned the contractors of both Kamariny stadium in Iten, Elgeyo Maraket County and Kipchoge Keino stadium in Eldoret Uasin Gishu county that there will be no extension to complete the facility for use.
Cabinet Administrative Secretary (CAS) of Sports Hassan Noor while on tour of inspecting the two facilities in North Rift warned contractors that come rain or sunshine; they have to complete the facility within the time frame allocated to them.
However, he warned the contractor for Kamariny that he is behind schedule and he should mobilize more to ensure that he meets the dateline and praised the Kipchoge contractor for the good work he is doing.
He said they are back as the government directive to inspect the facilities after one month.
“We are back here again to continuously inspect the works going on after giving datelines of the works at the facilities and it is going on and in know there are challenges of rains in the area,” said Noor.
Frustrated by the Kamariny contractor for failing to adhere on timeframe set when signing the contract, he warned him to speed up the works.
“From the look of things the level of mobilization is really wanting and we will ask the contractor and will give him the last warning to make sure that he pulls up his socks and mobilizes properly because the timelines that have been set for the completion of this stadium cannot be adjusted or extended. And I want to repeat that it cannot be adjusted come rain come sunshine. Government officers have on the grounds to access this facility daily to ensure that people benefit from this project,” warned Noor.
He said that the area is in itself a champion of Kenya’s athletes and the county that flies the flag as it were during international athletics championships and the only way and they can give to sportsmen and women is to provide them with standard infrastructure to that they can excel.
“This stadium started in 2016 and five to six years down the line we are still talking about the same stadium. We cannot endure this national shame anymore. We must be able to complete this stadium on time so that ours ports people can use not for now only but for prosperity.”
“The contractor you have one final chance to redeem the image of this place. Funds are available and you have been given the required funds and one and half months we have not seen much work done. You should have done this work a month ago not to wait for the rains to catch up with you,” warned Noor.
He said that the works is not what they want to see next time because the funds are available.
“In some areas, the contractors are working hard to meet the dateline, even working past curfew hours and we are willing to provide security and lights for the work to continue. We can’t afford to lose even one hour,” he added.
Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei said the region was regconized by the world athletics governing body The World Athletics for its continues production of top world athletes.
“This is one of the oldest stadiums in the county. The world Athletics honuouerd Iten because of the largely producing athletes. World Athletics honoured Iten with a plague as one of the eleven stations in the world and there were only two in Africa, one in Ethiopia and Kenya. We need to protect our heritage,” said Tuwei.
But the script was different at the Kipchoge stadium in Eldoret where Noor praised the contractor and his work.
“The VIP contractor is doing very well he is so much engaged and he is on schedule and we are optimistic that this phase is going to be completed within the time frame that has been given. However we still have issues with this project that is not implemented because of legal issues between ourselves and the contractor but we will resolve as fast as possible to allow the completion of the facility,” he said.
He added that the facility should be handed over on or before 20th of December 2020 for use and those timelines are not changeable.
“We can’t amend the timelines whether ether are rains or sunshine, those timelines are fixed. We can’t extend to 2021. That will be disservice to sportsmen and women of this great nation,” assured Noor.