The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) is set to build the Olympafrica Youth Centre in Ruai after receiving the backing of the Nairobi County Government.
The NOC-K has confirmed that it has been given land free of charge from the Government after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Nairobi City Hall.
NOC-K President Paul Tergat and Ann Kananu, deputy governor for Nairobi, signed the MoU at a ceremony on March 3.
Olympafrica, a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee, has agreed to sponsor the centre which is expected to assist with the development of talented young athletes.
The NOC-K is set to take on the operational costs with Olympafrica providing seed funding for the centre.
“Today is a big day and an exciting one to have such a centre built in Nairobi and with the partnership with the Governor’s office and Nairobi County,” said Tergat.
“Sports has changed and can change lives.”
Francis Mutuku, secretary general for NOC-K, said the centre in Nairobi would provide a “template” and encouraged other counties to get involved.
“We have been talking about transforming the youth and this is one of the ways to transform them,” said Mutuku in a report by allAfrica.
“As for the next steps, we’ll start putting together the plan, the International Olympic Committee has been promoting through Agenda 2020 cheaper ways of bringing sports to the community.
“We will therefore be looking at simple, practical ways to introduce sports to the youth, so that we can start as soon as possible.”
Ndiate Sall, director of programmes for Olympafrica added: “I would like to thank you all for the support and the way you have welcomed this project.
“Olympafrica is a social development programme for sports, we build centres that are basic sports facilities to give African youth somewhere they can practice sports and nurture their talent and to teach them the right values so they can be model citizens in the future.
“We are very happy to extend our network to Nairobi because we have centres in 37 countries in Africa, so we are excited to have this new centre here and we are reassured to see the way things are moving here.”
Kananu believes the centre will keep youngsters away from idleness, crime, drugs and alcohol abuse.
“It is my hope that one of the youths from this area will emulate our past and present Olympic heroes,” added Kananu.
