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Riruta Stadium Management Board chairperson John Hans Giteru yesterday called on Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja to rescue the facility.

Speaking in Dagoretti, Giteru cried foul, adding that there was money already allocated for the stadium, but politics has interfered hampering the development of football within the area.

“During Governor Mike ‘Sonko’ Mbuvi’s tenure, our stadium was one of the five identified for development, but then he was accused of corruption and ousted. After that, whoever took over has not thought about us in Riruta,” said Giteru, adding that the stadium serves as the only open ground public facility in both Dagoretti North and Dagoretti South constituencies.

Giteru said the then executive in charge of education and sports in Nairobi County Janet Ouko revealed plans for developing five stadiums in Nairobi County to address the need for more sports and recreational facilities that already had a 1.5 billion Ksh budget funded by the World Bank back in May 2018.

Nairobi County government under the leadership of Mike Mbuvi as Governor back then announced plans for the five stadiums which had Dandora Stadium which is nearing its completion in Embakasi North Constituency while others that only had a ground breaking ceremony and then stalled to date are Kihumbuini Stadium in Westlands Constituency, Jacaranda in Embakasi East Constituency, Umeme grounds Ziwani in Starehe Constituency and finally Riruta Stadium in Dagoretti South Constituency.

Nairobi County’s third Governor Johnson Sakaja had earlier on promised in February that Dandora Stadium will be done by May, even though construction works are still on going as the stadium nears its finish line, but has not mentioned the other four.

Last weekend football stakeholders in both Dagoretti constituencies joined and took matters into their own hands to rehabilitate Riruta Stadium adding that the area has over 30 Football Kenya Federation (FKF) league registered football clubs that are affected by the unpredictable weather patterns and the poor state of the field.

Now Giteru is also calling upon the Nairobi County Governor to push the Dandora agenda for Riruta taking into consideration that already there was money allocated for and according to him, the contractor is just waiting for the green light signal to begin work.