The Nairobi City County Government has launched an aggressive campaign to reclaim and develop sports grounds, calling upon corporates to also come on board and help in nurturing sports talent.
In a ground-breaking stakeholders’ breakfast Wednesday, county officials pledged to give sports “more respect and a bigger vote from the city’s budget.”
Oscar Igaida, the city’s Chief Officer for Youth, Talent and Sports, said they have, inter alia, reclaimed a field in Mwiki area for the development of volleyball, netball, football and basketball grounds besides indoor sports.
Governor Johnson Sakaja is expected to officially break ground for the Mwiki project next week, although work has already started.
The city is also opening up playgrounds in Umoja One, alongside other small community fields, and is seeking corporate partners to help upgrade these grounds to playable standards.
“The Jericho playground has also been secured in place of a proposed housing project and we are currently in procurement stage,” Igaida, who himself developed as a promising footballer in Jericho area, said. “While housing is important, grounds for recreation are equally critical.”
The county is seeking to fence off the Jericho ground which is adjacent to a basketball court developed by spirits brand Hennessy, and will include a football ground and tennis court.
“We are also done with the procurement process for the Woodley Stadium and the Governor will be there next Wednesday for the ground-breaking.
The county is also seeking partners to develop the Kahawa West Sports Complex. Besides infrastructure development, the Nairobi City County will also launch tournaments including the multi-sport Governor’s Talent Extravaganza and Sakaja’ s Super Cup knockout football tournament, the latter being sponsored by Governor Sakaja and friends.
“Our long-term goal is to establish talent development centres in every sub-county,” Igaida said at the stakeholders’ breakfast also attended by Deputy Governor Njoroge Muchiri with Governor Sakaja unable to make it due to other engagements.
“The Department of Sports was previously not taken seriously and with the sports programmes that we intend to roll out, you’ll see the seriousness with which the new administration is taking sports,” Igaida added.
Addressing the potential partners, Nairobi City County Sports Executive Brian Mulama assured corporates of the county’s accountability and transparency.
“We are an accountable regime in the management of county affairs. In the last few months, you have seen what we have done in trying to drive forward the city’s development,” he assured.
The breakfast was held in partnership with the Nairobi Liquor Board whose chairman Myke Rabar said the board will open 17 alcohol and drugs rehabilitation centres in the city over next three years.
“One of our underlying principles is to offer safe spaces for youths to get back to a straight line. Part of our mandate is to also invest in sports programmes by coming up with a plan to create forums for stakeholders to create pathways through community projects, not only in sports, but also in the arts, dance, ICT, etc,” Rabar said.
