City Stadium is an accident waiting to happen

Watching Harambee Stars play in the past few months has been devastating to those who love and know football. Kimanzi is a good coach but he is out of touch with reality on the ground. I will not go into the announcements by FKF after the loss to Togo; it is inconsequential and more of activity with no productivity.

As people waited for the results from Togo, I took time to watch Kariobangi Sharks play visiting Coast United at City Stadium that morning. I have been to City Stadium on several occasions but this day I saw more than I needed to see. The oldest stadium was screaming at me; I won’t be surprised if Harambee Stars lose to Togo, is all I could say and they did lose.

This is the oldest stadium in Kenya built in 1930s by colonialists. You will never write Kenya’a football history without mentioning the great City Stadium. The stadium was originally known as African Stadium, then Donholm Road Stadium and later Jogoo Road Stadium at independence in 1963 and finally Nairobi City Stadium.

It has been home to Gor Mahia whose fans proudly refer to it as tok K’omwanda. This just goes to tell you the place it holds in our football history. Very few people today can give you the true story behind Omwanda in relation to 15,000 capacity City Stadium. From what I have heard he was a business man in the neighboring Kaloleni Estate.

When you step into the VIP area of the stadium you are met with a stench that reminds you how Kenyan football smells. I bump into the match officials; I greet them and move on into the path of a player running past the officials into a changing room. I walk in and turn to look up for a vantage point to sit on the concrete. My eyes end up at the rusty old colonial steel structures holding the roof.

I walk up to the right, look down at the dirty concrete then at my pair of trouser and I decide to sit anyway. I gaze at the green artificial turf which is the only perfect piece in the whole stadium. I look across and see some toilets behind the terraces side better known as Russia. The last time the toilets worked may be Omwanda was alive.

Looking up I see the eye sore that the flood lights masts are and my heart feels for Harambee Stars in Togo. How do we expect them to perform when our facilities are this dilapidated? Kariobangi Sharks are warming on one side then Coast United step into the other side and I get distracted from my assesment. It is a cold morning so I decide to go and catch a mug of coffee sorry if you thought of Java, just go and try it out for yourself.

I bump into Kariobangi Sharks players as they run back to pick something from the changing room. If I was a Coast United fan out to make news I would just pour my hot coffee on them and run away very easily.

That is City Stadium in brief, the stadium Gor fans adore and cherish. I have not mentioned the car park on one of those afternoons when it rains in Nairobi. If it rains the VIP stand leaks so badly that you can’t enjoy the comfort of the hard concrete.  The perimeter fence around the pitch is also a mockery to the type of fans who come to City Stadium.

FIFA gave us the artificial turf when they wanted the whole of Africa to feel the effects of 2010 World Cup. When the turf was laid and the athletics track done away with, Nairobi City Council also decided to lie down and sleep. The playing surface and the former track is a stark contrast that screams to your ears.

Back to Basics

We are out of South Africa AFCON 2013 show and the 2014 World Cup is a long shot if the two qualifier matches we have played are anything to go by. We cannot dream big if we cannot master the basics. City Stadium is screaming, if we cannot do something about this facility then let us forget about our football ever growing.

The ‘Elephants’ of Ivory Coast trained in this facility in 2010, I would like to hear their take on what they saw. It is so unfortunate but now I will not suffer heartache if Harambee Stars lose if City Stadium will still be how it is.

Sports Stadia Management Board has banned Gor Mahia from its two facilities’ Nyayo and Kasarani for security reasons. This has left Gor with only City Stadium as their only option in Nairobi. If Gor Mahia fans are a security risk to opposing teams, their fans and match officials at Nyayo Stadium then sending them to City Stadium is a big risk on the safety of these people.

If you cannot contain K’ogallo fans at Nyayo, then there is nothing you can do at City Stadium. This is an accident waiting to happen. It is sad but an accident is the only language we understand because we cannot hear lung bursting screams.

 It is a shame that except the artificial turf everything else is the same way we got the stadium at independence. We have added no value to it five decades later, no wonder we cannot beat Togo.

Kariobangi Sharks went on to beat Coast United 2-1 in a very entertaining match. They have been tipped as the FC Barcelona of Kenya and they did not disappoint. My only problem was that such good talent will get swallowed and killed in the mire that is Kenyan football. I can’t wait to see Sharks in KPL but meanwhile, I will plug my ears to these head splitting screams.