Kiambu’s 215 Million Strategy To Host 2017 IAAF Youth Championships.
An Aerial view of Thika Sub-County Stadium |
In a bid to woo the 2017 IAAF World U18 Championships,Kiambu County Government has set aside Sh. 215 million to construct state-of-the-art stadiums within the county.
The C.E.C. in charge of Sports & Youth Affairs Mr. Michael Waikenda has confirmed that construction works for these facilities will be completed early next year as they were almost through with their designs.
Kirigiti Stadium has been allocated the lion share (Sh.100m) with Sh. 30m going to Ruiru Stadium, Sh.15m for Thika Stadium while Limuru will make do with Sh.10m for rehabilitation. Another Sh. 60m has been set aside to rehabilitate one ground per each of the 60 wards in Kiambu County, translating to Sh. 1million per ward.
Waikenda said that due to its high altitude which is ideal for training, the county government settled on Limuru as the venue for athlete preparations prior to the games.
“We are planning to persuade IAAF to use our facilities. Limuru is very ideal for training due to its high altitude. The county stadia are also among the best we have in the country. We will definitely negotiate with them to use our venues for the competition next year,” said Waikenda.
The county government’s position was arrived at after the Kiambu County Assembly unanimously passed a motion that compelled the executive to establish a partnership with IAAF Kenyan Chapter for Kiambu to play host to next year’s world youth competitions.
In the motion tabled in the house by Hon. Njenga Murugami of Limuru East ward, the assembly agreed that this was a great opportunity for our youth to venture in gainful employment as it will open up business opportunities in the sub-counties hosting the fete. It would also promote sport tourism within this region and open up Kiambu to the world market they said.
Nairobi won the bid to host the 2017 IAAF World U18 Championships (formerly IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics) that are scheduled to take place between the 12th and 16th of July next year. This is a biennial global athletics event comprising of track and field events for competitors who are 17 years old or younger.
Kenya won the bid that was announced at the Fairmount Hotel, Monaco in November 2014. Nairobi happened to be the only candidate then. This is the second time that the IAAF World Youth Championships will be hosted in Africa, the first being in Morocco in 2005. Kampala Uganda will host the 2017 World Cross Country Championships on the 26th of March 2017.
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