Construction of Wote Stadium ‘in six months time’ left at sixes and sevens

Sandwiched between the town’s solid waste dumping site and a Sh2 billion government housing project that stalled 33 years ago, the proposed Wote Stadium in Makueni County evokes eerie memories.

It was supposed to be completed in 2018, six months after construction work was commissioned by the then Deputy President William Ruto.

The proposed stadium was in fact made famous by the then Deputy President during the 2017 presidential campaign when he emphatically declared that in six month’s time it would be complete and be part of the Jubilee government’s pledge of building world class sports facilities.

Six years later, however, the Sh350 million-project has stalled, sparking fears among locals that acquiring a state of the art stadium will remain a pipe dream.

There was no single construction activity underway when a Nation Sport team toured the stadium on Monday.

The main contractor, Nitram and Traphes Enterprises Limited, has erected a section of the perimeter wall, levelled the football field and a part of the ground where the running track will be laid.

What section where the football pitch lies as grazing field. Locals have reported unabated cases of vandalism and theft of construction materials.

A neighbour to the stadium said the contractor abandoned the site a year ago. Wote Stadium is one of five across the country that the Jubilee administration promised Kenyans in the run up to the 2017 General Election.

A copy of the stadium’s blueprint shows that it will accommodate 20,000 people and comfortably host national and international track and field events.

The county government is banking on the stadium, once complete, to revitalize sports in the region.

Although Sports Kenya and various government officials have touted the proposed stadium as the key to unlocking the county’s sporting talent, delays in the project have made locals suspicious of the government’s commitment in undertaking the project.

Wote Stadium ran into financial and technical headwinds from the onset. Its construction ground to a halt shortly after its commissioning by Ruto during a campaign blitz in the run-up to the 2017 General Election.

The delays in the project dominated political talks in the region for three years before civil works resumed, albeit slowly.

The main contractor has been under intense pressure to deliver the project with senior government officials openly accusing him of laxity in completing the stadium.

Mark Muendo, a director of Nitram and Traphes Enterprises, has over the years citing technicalities for the delays.

At the very onset, he blamed the project consultant, Mutiso Menezes International, for “changing the design of the stadium to include a retaining wall to take care of a steep gradient. This wall had not been factored in the initial designs.

After the consultant redid the designs we hit a soggy basement as we excavated to install the pavilion on the western side of the stadium”.

Muendo also points an accusing finger at Sports Kenya for the delay in paying his firm.

At the height of the finger pointing in 2021, the Ministry of Sports kicked the contractor out of the site, accusing them of incompetence.

According to Mutiso Menezes International, the contractor had completed approximately 35 per cent of the project in 2021.

This drew the ire of then Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed.

A seemingly worked up Amina ordered the contractor to refund some of the money already paid to then, arguing it was in excess of the work done, as she announced the takeover of the project by the National Youth Service.

Surprisingly, none of these moves took place. Instead, Sports Kenya rekindled dreams of Makueni County having a state-of-the-art stadium by quietly reinstated Nitram and Traphes Enterprises Limited to the project.

Sports Kenya also committed to fast tracking the approval of the changed designs for the stadium.

However, local leaders were concerned with the slow pace of the project.

Towards the end of 2021, Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior sought answers on the delays.

In response, the then Sports Principal Joe Okudo said the government was in the process of approving a change in the design of the stadium which required the western pavilion relocated to the eastern side of the stadium.

Okudo also said Sports Kenya had committed to fast track the processing of payment to Nitram and Traphes Enterprises Limited for the work done.

After touring the project site in February last year in the company of Kilonzo Jnr, Sports Kenya director general Pius Metto exuded confidence the project would be completed in June of that year.

A year later, however, the construction of the pavilion on the eastern side of the stadium has not even started.

The contractor has not set up a retaining wall on the western side of the stadium to stabilize the field and protect the works done on the athletics track as directed by the consultant at the project.

The proposed Wote stadium remains an abandoned construction site.

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