By Obegi Malack
@obegimalack
President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations to be moved to Narok County.
This is after concerns on preparations of Kajiado County to host the event. A committee mandated to monitor the progress which is led by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i had expressed concerns that the Kajiado town stadium construction works may not be completed on time as scheduled.
During the meeting at State House Nairobi on Monday, attended by Kajiado County Governor Joseph ole Lenku and his Narok counterpart Samuel ole Tunai, Uhuru directed the Ministry of Sports and Heritage to allocate Sh100 million to Kajiado County to ensure the on-going works at the stadium are completed to host future events.
Uhuru had visited Kajiado after attending 20th Heads of State Summit of the East African Community in Tanzania earlier this month and announced that this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations would be held in Kajiado County.
The Government seeks to ensure that all counties benefits from hosting of the national event economically and help in uniting the nation. The event used to be held in Nairobi.
The county lacks a standard stadium to hold events; construction of Ngong stadium which was started four years ago had stalled before allocation of funds this month for construction to continue. The stadium was among venues that had been proposed before the event was moved to Kajiado town.
Kajiado Youth and Sports CECM Alvin Kimani had said the stadium first phase will be completed on May this year to hold such events.
The State House meeting was attended by among others the Principal Secretaries Karanja Kibichu (Interior and Coordination of National Government) and Kirimi Kaberia (Sports and Heritage).