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Construction works at the Kipchoge Keino Stadium will be completed within four months. 

That will be well ahead of the Tokyo Olympic trials take place at the venue in early June.

Speaking yesterday after inspecting the facility for the third time, Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohammed said the contractors have promised to adhere to the timelines so that the facility can be used to host local and national competitions by mid this year.

The Minister said the government was in constant conversation with the contractor to make sure the work is completed in good time as they also maintain the standard, to make it a world class stadium.

She challenged the contractors to work round the clock to complete the work in the specified time since work at the facility had stalled since 2017.

“This is a very critical facility for the government. We are very important sporting nation and we want to see this facility completed as fast as possible.

The contractor has agreed to adhere to that directive,” said Amina when she led a team of officials on a tour of the stadium.

She added: “The reason am here is to implement a directive from President Uhuru Kenyatta to ensure the completion of the stadium is in good time and when I come back here, it should be when we will be hosting a sporting event and not another inspection.”

Though the contractors assured the CS that the facility would be completed by May, the Minister gave them a deadline of beginning of June.

“We have a new dateline and we have told them that if they cant meet the deadlines, they should own up and we give the job to other contractors. This country is not short of contractors,” said Amina.

She also revealed that the ministry had a budget for the Olympic team that was only waiting the approval of the cabinet before the funds are released.

“We have funds for Olympic team LOC, what has remained is to send the memo to the cabinet to approve the budget because it has to be done at that level. The money has been there.” Said Mohammed.

She said they had discussions with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) and as the head of the steering committee for the Tokyo Games, they were going to make sure that they have resources in good time for proper preparations.