The high anticipation among Nakuru residents on the opening of Afraha Stadium will continue to be on hold, after news emerged that the venue will not be available to host the 43^rd edition of the KECOSO games as earlier communicated.

In an interview with Mtaa Wangu, KECOSO secretary general, Omole Asiko, notes that preparations towards the tournament are gearing up well.

Nonetheless they have been forced to seek an alternative venue to host the four sports disciplines (football, volleyball, athletics and netball) which were initially scheduled to be held at Afraha stadium.

“With two weeks to go until the start of the Kenya Communication Sports Organizations (KECOSO) games, we have had to make some adjustments and move the games to Nakuru ASK showground and Kabarak university,” he says.

According to him, other than the games, Afraha stadium was important because they intended to have the opening and closing ceremony at the stadium.

“Therefore after deliberations, the organizing committee has settled on football, volleyball and netball as well as the opening and closing ceremony be moved to the Nakuru ASK showground while athletics will be done from Kabarak university,” he adds.

Mr Asiko notes that other than those changes, everything else is on course.

According to him, the games will be spread out across different venues with Snooker being played from Rift Valley Sports club while golf will be at Nakuru Golf club.

Other games including table tennis, basketball, darts, pool, scrabble and swimming will be done from Kabarak university too.

In addition, Mr Asiko notes that this year Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is a new addition to the KECOSO games.

“Before we had a 13-member organization participating in the games. KeNHA's entry brings us to 14 members. We are always ready to take up more members for games,” he notes.

Kenya communication sports organization (KECOSO) alternate chairman , Muchiri Githinji during an interview at the Nakuru golf club on August 17, 2024.

Photo credit: PURITY KINUTHIA/MTAA WANGU

KECOSO’s alternative chairman, Muchiri Githinji, says they are delighted to have the sports hosted in Nakuru.

Asked if the unavailability of Afraha stadium would affect future considerations of hosting KECOSO games in Nakuru, Gitihinji says “Our motto is to take sports to the people. We had considered Nakuru for the facilities it has. This is the seventh time the games are being held here and we will clearly make considerations to bring them here in future.”

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) will be coming in as the overall defending champions. They will be defending the title in the week-long games between August 31 - September 7, 2024 after their overall win when the games were held in Narok last year.

County extends Afraha stadium reopening date

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