•Tanzania is the only East African country with approved stadiums, according to a list provided by the Cairo-based organisation on Sunday.
•Gor secured a berth in the continental championships after storming the Kenyan Premier League title on the final day of a fiercely contested campaign.
Image: PCS
Kenyan Premier League champions Gor Mahia will play all their Caf Champions League matches away from home.
K’Ogalo found themselves in a dilemma after the continental football governing body, Caf, excluded all Kenyan sports facilities from its list of permitted venues.
Tanzania is the only East African country with approved stadiums, according to a list provided by the Cairo-based organisation on Sunday.
Gor secured a berth in the continental championships after storming the Kenyan Premier League title on the final day of a fiercely contested campaign.
Sam Ocholla, the secretary general of K’Ogalo, revealed on Sunday that the Tanzanian Football Federation agreed to allow the traditional Kenyan behemoths to play their preliminaries and group stage games at the Azam and Benjamin Mkapa stadiums.
Even though Gor have contacted the Football Kenya Federation, Ocholla doubts that the local governing body will be able to resolve the issue quickly.
Kenya suffered a major setback in 2021 when both the Moi Stadium, Kasarani, and Nyayo Stadium were barred from hosting international games.
While evaluating the two Kenyan facilities for the Fifa World Cup 2022 qualifiers, the Caf Inspection Committee pronounced them unsatisfactory.
In the absence of adequate facilities, Kenyan clubs will be forced to host home matches in neighbouring countries. The latest development means that the country’s representatives in the Caf Confederations Cup, Kakamega Homeboyz, will also host their opponents in venues outside the country.
Kenya’s perennial headache can be traced to sweet-talking and persuasive politicians have cunningly wheedled the electorate away with lofty and unattainable pre-election pledges.
They dangle the carrot right in the eyes of unsuspecting local sports enthusiasts who gladly buy into the fresh set of palavers, unaware that few of the previous promises have been fulfilled.
In 2013, former President Uhuru Kenyatta and his then-deputy William Ruto promised to build nine stadia across the country.
The duo also promised to refurbish all the existing facilities to modern standards. But years into their tenure the promises seemed to have lost their magic.
Only in the latter days of the Jubilee administration did the government launch a desperate last-ditch effort to fulfill the promises.
Despite the enormous sums of money invested in the ambitious initiatives, it is extremely worrying that none of the Kenyan facilities have been approved to host international events.
This, even as shocking reports emerged that taxpayers may have lost over Sh830 million in the stadia upgrading exercise. Details emerged of how tender-savvy individuals may have taken advantage of ghost projects to secure a lifetime windfall.
A disturbing report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in 2019, revealed how hundreds of millions of shillings went down the drain in the Sh2.5 billion stadia projects.
Gathungu said no tender documents were provided by Sports Kenya for contracts on Kamariny, Ruringu, Kichoge Keino, Karatu Ndarugu, Wote, Marsabit, Kirubia and Kinoru.
She added that the county stadia projects were procured by contractors without due process, adding she was not provided with original tender documents, tender opening minutes, evaluation committee reports, and procurement professional opinions.
On June 22, Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba ripped into a contractor over the slow pace and quality of work at the Kipchoge Keino stadium in Eldoret.
It is reassuring to see that the CS issued a warning to contractors, making it clear that shoddy work would not be accepted.
Furthermore, Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum noted that an extensive master plan is in place to ensure the construction process is managed and completed appropriately.
Authorities must act immediately so that we do not embarrass ourselves any further by begging neighbouring nations for sports facilities. We possess the financial muscles to build our own!