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{
"id": 1476201,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1476201/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kipchumba Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for the invitation. I also appreciate you for congratulating me. I thank the House for approving my appointment, this being my first time to come into this Chamber since my re-appointment. It is always exciting to be here. It is a great privilege, knowing that many Kenyans would have had an opportunity to appear before such an august House. I was asked four questions as you have mentioned. For the purpose of The Hansard, I will restate them and then respond. The first question was to apprise the state of the preparedness of the country in terms of infrastructure facilities and other logistics to successfully host international sports events and, more specifically, the planned hosting of CHAN and AFCON. By way of introduction, the Ministry, through Sports Kenya, embarked on a number of sports infrastructure projects during the Second, Third and Fourth Medium-Term Plans of 2013-2017, 2018-2022 and 2022-2027, respectively. We are aligned with the Kenya Vision 2030 and the Kenya Kwanza Government Manifesto. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have jointly secured hosting rights for AFCON 2027 and CHAN 2025, which is the Total Energies Africa Nations Championship, leading to targeted upgrading of some facilities in compliance with the requirements of the championship. The bid was awarded to the three countries by the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on 27th September 2023. The Cabinet approved the hosting of the sports event on 3rd October 2023. On 15th September 2024, I was privileged to host the CAF President, who visited the country to assess Kenya’s preparedness to host CHAN 2025 and AFCON 2027. I am glad to inform you that the CAF President expressed satisfaction with the progress we have made thus far. On the sports infrastructure development, the Ministry developed a master plan and categorised the infrastructure development in the country into several categories. First, is that international stadia shall be stadia that have category 4 status, which is over 30,000 seating capacity. There shall also be national stadia, Category 3A, which shall have 15,000 to 30,000 seating capacity. There are also regional or county stadia with 10,000 to 15,000 seating capacity. We will also have community grounds in Category A with 5,000 to 10,000 seating capacity. There are also smaller community grounds with a seating capacity of below 5,000 people. Currently, development and refurbishment of those projects have been prioritised into categories as follows: The African Cup of Nations (AFCON) projects, the ongoing projects and future planned projects. In so far as the preparation of AFCON and Total Energies African Nations Championship (CHAN) is concerned, there are three very important pieces of infrastructure. Firstly, there is a new stadium that is being constructed at Jamhuri, along Ngong Road in Nairobi, which is Talanta Sports City. That stadium shall have a seating capacity of 60,000 people. It is expected to be complete by December 2025. The stadium will have three training grounds within the Talanta Sports City. Two, will have a running track and one football pitch which shall be shared with rugby. As a result of that construction, the Nyayo National Stadium shall be categorised as a training ground for the purpose of AFCON. The Talanta Sports City Stadium will be the main one and the training ground will be at the Nyayo National Stadium. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}