Unbeknown to many, President Uhuru Kenyatta last Sunday made another impromptu visit to the Nyayo National Stadium to assess progress of the facility’s long overdue renovations.
President Kenyatta’s incognito call came hot on the heels of another tour of the stadium by the Victor Munyaka-led Parliament sports committee that gave the works a clean bill of health.
The Head of State’s surprise visit perhaps confirms that Kenya’s fourth President is keen on leaving sports infrastructure development as one of his key legacies.
It’s a late rally, though, as riding into office in 2013 on a Jubilee Party pre-election pledge to develop modern sports infrastructure, President Kenyatta is heading into the 90th minute one goal down, and needing two quick strikes to salvage his game.
A déjà vu feeling as I have reminiscing on how my favourite club, Manchester United, then under Sir Alex Ferguson, often scored late winners to pull coal out of fire in the late 90s an early 2000s.
I still replay that famous United 2-1 FA Cup fourth round victory over Liverpool in the 1998/ 99 season when Dutch defender Jaap Stam waltzed into the Liverpool half and floated in a long delivery from the right.
Midfielder Paul Scholes invitingly scrambled the ball into the box which “baby-faced assassin” Ole Gunnar Solksjaer - the Red Devils’ current coach – gleefully left-footed past a wrong-footed David “Calamity” James in goal for the winner.
Michael Owen had scored for Liverpool after just 140 seconds with Dwight Yorke levelling in the 88th and Solksjaer bagging the winner two minutes later, in the 90th.
Such is the situation President Kenyatta finds himself in, as the clock ticks fast towards the 90th minute with Jubilee a goal down, and 2022 on the horizon.
Given the fantastic developments with the Nyayo National Stadium’s renovations, it would appear that President Kenyatta is pushing for a late equaliser and then, hopefully, get the much-needed stoppage time winner.
Meanwhile, in Kericho County, the game is over and Governor Paul Kiprono Chepkwony is sitting pretty after a brilliant second half play.
His county has just completed the laying of a new synthetic track (we habitually refer to it as “tartan,” but ‘Tartan Track’ is actually a trademarked brand name), the first one that we know to have been laid outside Machakos, Nairobi, Eldoret and Iten.
In the grand scheme of things, Governor Chepkwony is leading 3-0 with a few seconds to go, having signed, sealed and delivered his legacy programme.
This single investment by the Kericho County Government will also most certainly lead to a paradigm shift in the oft-told Kenyan distance running tale that tilts heavily towards the North Rift.
Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, right after Kericho’s Wilson Kiprugut Chumo won Kenya’s first Olympic medal - a bronze in the 800 metres - at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, the medal pendulum has swayed heavily in favour of the North Rift.
Just a handful of athletes from the South Rift have achieved global acclaim, after Kiprugut, most significantly steeplechase legend Paul Kipsiele Koech, current world steeplechase record holder Beatrice Chepkoech, world 800m bronze medallist Ferguson Rotich, former Boston marathon winner Caroline Kilel, along with former world 5,000 metres silver medallist Mercy Cherono, to name but a few.
Watch this space!
The newly-laid synthetic track is just the tonic required to trigger the production of many more world-beaters.
And that the track project cost Governor Chepkwony just Sh37 million is another impressive fact, given that we have seen some counties vote over Sh100 million for tracks we are yet to see.
Therefore, when he meets with Governor Chepkwony this week as the national government pushes counties to ready more isolation beds for Covid-19 preparedness, President Kenyatta can get a tip or two from the good professor on how to conjure up fast delivery of sports infrastructure projects.
Congratulations Governor Chepkwony for pulling this one off, as easy as a good cup of Kericho tea.
The new Kericho Green Stadium, with all its floodlights and other facilities, will motivate laggards like Nyamira County to up their game.
Green as it may be, it would be a clincher to now rename the venue “The Wilson Kiprugut Stadium” in honour of the legend from Kericho who set Kenya off on an Olympic medal rush.
Well done, Professor Chepkwony! Kongoi mising!
Makori is the Editor – Sports at the Nation Media Group.
