With the facelift at Nyayo National Stadium’s main arena nearing completion, basketball stakeholders now want the government to turn its attention to the stadium’s indoor arena.
Led by International Basketball Federation Association (Fiba) agent Job Waka and Upper Hill School coach Ronald Omangi, the stakeholders who have formed a forum to engage the Ministry of Sports, said the stadium’s indoor basketball arena is in a “pathetic” state and urgently needs rejuvenation.
The stadium currently has no seats with the concrete slabs accommodating fans and the Upper Hill coach adds that proper seating will also better allow for social distancing in line with current public health directives in the fight against the coronavirus.
As it stands, the indoor court also has no proper locker rooms for teams to change, strategise pre-match and at half time, or to take a decent shower after matches.
Fans are also forced to carry umbrellas as the leaking roof lets in water in torrents.
The Nyayo National Stadium’s closeness to the Nairobi central business district also makes it attractive to fans.
“We want to applaud the government, through the Ministry of Sports, for the excellent renovation work at Nyayo National Stadium which has seen the facility upgraded.
“As members of the basketball fraternity, we would like to urge the Ministry of Sports to now focus on the indoor basketball arena which needs a major face lift,” they said in a statement.
The indoor arena needs, among others, seats, functional changing rooms and LED lighting to replace the old halogen lamps.
Also needed is a modern scoreboard, 24-seconds short clocks while the playing surface and the leaking roof also need to be replaced.
The officials say a renovated facility will also have a positive impact on Kenya’s performance in international competitions.
In January, Kenya hosted the Africa Zone Afrobasket qualifiers at the Nyayo National Stadium, the first time Kenya was hosting a major competition since 1993.
But the arena was overwhelmed, especially during the final match between Kenya and South Sudan, which, at some point, was almost switched to the more spacious Moi International Sports Centre.
“It was embarrassing that Nyayo National Stadium could not accommodate all the fans who thronged the venue to watch the match, forcing several of them to be locked out for lack of space,” recalled Waka.
“This forced the match to be delayed for four hours as security personnel cleared out the fans who had broken the gates into the facility.”
He noted that Kenya was lucky to escape the wrath of the world and Africa basketball governing body for flouting crowd control procedures.
The tournament was also played without a scoreboard denying fans the opportunity to analytically follow games.
Omangi wants the renovation done before September when, hopefully, the domestic season resumes.
He argues that a revamped venue will also allow Kenya to most more top-flight championships.
