Okaka: Government must speed up stadia upgrade despite CHAN postponement

What is urgent is done hastily, and when the pressure has somewhat subsided, the authorities will quite often return to factory settings and say, "There is no hurry in Africa."

Very urgent projects will no longer be a priority until the urgency returns. It is a country so predictable in its laxity.

This week, the Confederation of African Football CAF postponed the highly anticipated Africa Nations Championship football tournament (CHAN) from February to August 2025.

The championship hosted jointly by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania was postponed for what CAF termed as the need for more time for the host countries to upgrade venues to CAF standards.

The postponement of the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (“CHAN”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024 to August 2025, though not the outcome most East Africans would have loved, could as well have its positives.

Therefore, as Kenya was the last in the pecking order on the construction and upgrading of stadiums, the Kenyan government must be reminded to maintain the steady progress of construction works in our stadiums that had been activated and not slip back to sleep mode where contractors often leave site due to lack of a disbursement of funds.

For starters, let us look back at 2018 when CAF stripped Kenya of the hosting rights of CHAN 2018, which had been set to be played in early 2019.

The tournament was quickly taken to Cameroon after Kenya failed to complete renovations of Nyayo National Stadium and Moi International Sports Complex Kasarani Stadium.

Soon after the tournament went to Cameroon, the Kenyan government folded up operations and the stadiums were closed with no further work going on.

Much to the chagrin of sport loving Kenyans, the responsible authorities literary went back to factory settings. This must not be the case in 2025.

On a positive note however, the construction and renovation works have been on a steady trajectory since Kenya decided to close stadiums in 2023.

Under the leadership of former sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, it was very promising that Kenya would have beaten the December 31, 2024, CAF inspection deadline.

However, after the July 2024 Cabinet reshuffle, new sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen's leadership saw a slowed pace in these construction works, perhaps even missing the CAF deadline was as a result of this decline.

Kenyan sports stakeholders urge new Sports CS Salim Mvurya to ensure the works continue with the same speed and quality as has been ongoing just before the postponement.

Football stakeholders must hold the government of the day to account by maintaining the need to complete stadiums in time.

These stadiums were almost set to host a major continental championship without first hosting other high-profile matches and testing their capabilities of hosting CHAN.

Kenya now has the opportunity to have the stadiums completed and host high-risk matches like the Mashemeji derby between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, or the crowd-pulling Shabana FC as well as several international matches to ascertain the capability and preparedness before hosting CHAN.

The President of CAF Dr. Patrice Motsepe expressed gratitude to President William Ruto of Kenya, President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for their "leadership, commitment, and the good progress" that has been made in building and upgrading the facilities (stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals and other infrastructure)

This commitment must not fizzle out or be seen to dwindle before our stadiums are ready. We must build infrastructure with the same urgency that was there before CAF pushed CHAN to August, after all, CHAN would still have been played without Kenya, and many East Africans, especially on social media believe Kenya was the cause for the postponement.

While the Ministry of Sports could be well intended to complete the stadiums, the treasury is obligated to ensure funds are available. The buck stops with the Treasury and on this, Kenyans demand that these facilities be completed.

By closing down the stadiums for construction works, our leagues have been left without adequate facilities depriving the Kenyan Premier League of an opportunity to thrive, an opportunity to grow and in return, develop local talent.

It is an opportunity to give our teams top-class stadiums for them to develop and this can only be achieved if they are completed within the stipulated timelines.

Kenn Okaka is a Media and Communication Strategist