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Gatundu South football players are up in arms with their leaders over abandoned football pitches that are now an eyesore.

A visit at Kimunyu football grounds depicted a picture of joy among players who have been leaving nothing to chance to get busy through training thereby keeping them away from uptake of outlawed substances and immorality.

Their poor playfield portrays a picture of lost hope, desolation, devastation and absolute poor leadership.
The playground has no toilets or changing rooms, its perimeter walls are on the verge of caving in while the bare open gate allows all manner of visits and even grazers come to graze their livestock there.

For decades, the playfield that has played host to several sports competitions organized by learning institutions, moulding professional players such as international Francis Kahata who currently plays for Kenya Police FC, among other stars, unfortunately the facility is now run-down.

Poor drainage at the field has become a major issue for players who decried that they are forced to stop training sessions as soon as rains start pouring as the facility gets water-logged with its natural soil aggravating the situation.

James Gacheru, the chairman in charge of Hot Rangers, the county-league team that trains at the field, regretted that due to the poor state of the playfield, many youths have lost hope in sports.

“We have been trying our best to have as many youths in the playfield as possible. Most of them have however lost morale due to the poor training facilities we have here,” regretted Gacheru. Gacheru and other players spoke in the wake of revelations that Karatu Stadium, the Sh260 million facility is now a grazing field for livestock, five years after it was commissioned.

Irked by the turn of events, the players urged the government to take stern action against contractors given the jobs to put up various facilities across the country saying their failure to complete projects has been killing dreams.

“It cannot be that people enrich themselves using taxpayers’ money only to hand over incomplete projects. Right now, Karatu would have grown even more economically should the contractor have completed the facility but the fact that it’s still an eyesore is completely shocking,” John Mungai, another player said.

Lack of quality football pitches in the country has proved to be a major headache for both the local football administrators and clubs plying trade in all tiers across the country.