• The contractor, Scanjet Construction, has not returned to the site despite President Uhuru Kenyatta in February ordering the project’s completion expedited.
Image: COURTESY
City Hall will seek help from the national government to complete the stalled Sh350 million Dandora Stadium project.
The contractor, Scanjet Construction, has not returned to the site despite President Uhuru Kenyatta in February ordering the project’s completion expedited.
Education executive Janet Ouko on Monday said the county was considering a government-to-government agreement with the department of Public Works to complete the stadium.
“The option of handing it over to the national government came up when we held a meeting in February. We had already written to concerned stakeholders seeking for an advisory on how to ensure the stadium will be completed,” she said.
Ouko said the 18-month tenure of the project had elapsed by more than six months. By the time the project stalled, more than 3,000 seats had been installed in the terraces. The floodlights had also been fitted.
“The community needs the stadium at the end of the day. At least 32 teams have to seek other places to play because the stadium is incomplete,” Ouko said.
Efforts to have Scanjet Construction back on site to finalise the remaining construction works have proven futile.
Ouko said the 32 teams using the pitch had been locked out of schools, whose playgrounds they used previously, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Last month, the county government said it was looking for new contractors to build three other stadia in the capital following the Dandora Stadium flop.
The Dandora Stadium is part of four stadia in Nairobi that were to be built for Sh1.3 billion in the 2017-18 financial year by Scanjet Construction.
The other three include Kawangware Stadium that was to be built for Sh250 million, Kihumbuini (Sh250 million) and Ziwani (Sh186.6 million).
Last year in October, concerns were raised about the stalling of works at the Dandora Stadium.
The stadium should have been completed in July last year, but works stopped when it was 80 per cent done. Scanjet Construction left the site in September 2019.
Since then, about 10 Nairobi county executives and other officials have been investigated on recommendations of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.
The PPRA questioned the tendering process and the standards of the work done by Scanjet Construction.
The PPRA flagged irregularities in the awarding of the tender, alteration of contract specifications, suspected irregular payments and forgery of documents.
The authority had on June 13, 2019, received a complaint that Scanjet Construction was using steel structures, in contravention of the contract specifications.
Further, the county government irregularly paid the contractor despite warnings from technical evaluators that contract documents, including a cabinet memorandum, were forged to state the stadium should be a steel structure when the work is 70 per cent complete.
After investigations, the PPRA indicted the county government for paying Sh196.87 million to the contractor despite the technical evaluators questioning the quality of work. It recommended remedial action against any party culpable.
EACC officials also completed evaluating the stadium, but their report is yet to be submitted.
(edited by o. owino)