SAKAJA: ‘DANDORA STADIUM SHALL BE COMPLETED BEFORE POLLS’
NAIROBI, 1st December - Nairobi Senator Sen Johnson Sakaja has given Nairobi residents his assurances that the stalled Dandora Stadium will be completed before the 2022 General Election.
Leading a delegation of the Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, comprising Sen Susan Kihika (Nakuru) and Sen Millicent Omanga (Nairobi Delegation), Chairman Sakaja said that he’ll ensure pending works at the stadium are completed before the next polls.
“We will do our report today and we will get its adoption and the report will say, in part, that this project must be completed. On which contractor does it, we do not care. We only want the project completed,” he said.
Ground-breaking of the Sh350 million stadium was done in 2018 and ought to have been completed by July 2020.
Investigations by the Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) allegedly attributed to the stalling of the stadium after the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) raised concerns over its tendering process.
Sen Sakaja however reported that he had assurances from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Twalib Mbarak that the watchdog agency had not halted the stadium’s construction.
“The biggest victims of whatever happened to this project is not the contractor or the County but it is our youths of Dandora. If anything, you have been denied your ground because before the construction started the ground was being used,” Sen Sakaja said.
Nairobi County, through the Education and Sports Executive member Janet Ouko, regretted that the project stalled, promising to closely work with Sen Sakaja and the Committee on Labour to ensure the stadium benefits the local community.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2021 had asked the leadership of the Nairobi County government to ensure the Dandora stadium is completed.
The Dandora Stadium is one of the four stadia in Nairobi that were allocated Sh1.3 billion in the Financial Years 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020.