Bring the next games to Kenya

By Muchiri Waititu

“The Olympics are the most significant generator of investment and private equity in the world today”.?— Andrew Young, leader of the successful Atlanta Olmpics bid.

No news is bigger currently than the Olympics news. After four years of wondering what the English could do to top the ‘out of this world’ experience of the Beijing Olympics, the answer was surprising and reassuring in equal measure.

Beijing needed to announce its arrival as a world superpower and had brought out its superstars; high technology, order and ancient history. The opening ceremony showcased the invention of gunpowder and rocket technology and used the backdrop of the Beijing National Stadium dubbed the ‘Bird’s-nest’ to show the world that they were now in the league of superpower states.

 To do this, a ceremony full of technological feats was achieved with the now iconic Li Ning flying through the stadium to light the Olympic flame.

London’s answer to Li Ning’s gravity defying feat was very telling. Instead of doing a sci-fi movie, the London games brought in Mr Bean and made us laugh. The organisers played on the strong points of the English, a rich history as the originators of the Magna Carta and the creators of the Industrial age and the Internet.

Just to remind us that London was still inventing stuff and remains relevant, the opening ceremony also showcased its status as a premier cultural centre as well as a melting pot of various cultures. Where else do you get nationals with surnames such as Ofuoma, Jones and Singh flying the same flag (apart from Kenya)?

National pride

Buildings, just like the opening ceremony, are an expression of who we are. Together with art, theatre and literature, they tell our story only that they are in brick and mortar and that we actually have to live in them. This is why we take such great pride when we build our own houses.

This is also why whenever we want to show how we are advancing as a nation, we talk about the latest skyscrapers and take visitors on a ride on Thika Super Highway.

The local example to all this is our very own Kasarani Stadium, which was built specifically for the 1987 All African Games. Also built for these games were the Nyayo Stadium Basketball and Handball arenas as well as the swimming pool and the City Park Hockey Pitch. I do not know how much architectural expression went into the projects, but they still serve as great sporting arenas to date.

The greatest legacy of all these great sporting occasions is always going to be the athlete’s village. Long after the flame has been doused and the mursik has been offered at the airport, the villages remain as the most memorable legacy of any games.

This is why I like the ring of ‘All African Games, Nairobi 2019’, ‘World Student Games/ Universiade 2019’ or ‘2022 Commonwealth Games’. These games each bring about 9,000 and 19,000 athletes to the host nation.

I won’t bore you with the marketing issues the games bring to the host nation or the excitement of watching our athletes strut in a world arena. Mine is more mundane brick and mortar.

Host goodies

A quick glance at former Olympics host cities, Vancouver, Beijing, Athens and Sydney tells a story not usually told.

A typical Olympic village will hold at least 18,000 people. To house them, the host city usually constructs a Village, which usually reverts to public use after the games.

In most cases, the village is usually in the form of apartment complex, which is sold to the public after fulfilling its initial mandate.

 In Vancouver, the city turned them into rental units run by the city whilst the Beijing apartments were sold off to the public. The Vancouver Village also presented the City with its chance to transform a neglected part to give it some vibrancy.

Game spectacles give the host nation what the management gurus call ‘tunnel focus’. You announce to the world that you will have a great tournament in a certain date in the future and thereupon use up all your energies meeting this deadline.

You cannot postpone the date, you cannot fail to deliver on your promise (please don’t remind me that the 1987 games were supposed to be held in 1983) and delivery failure to on any component of the games leaves you open to ridicule (ask any Indian about the Delhi Commonwealth Games). It’s like having Vision 2030 with a guest list of VIPs ready to show up on January 1, 2030. You simply cannot fail to deliver!

So, say if Nairobi were to host any of the games listed above, we would already have an excuse to do an urban renewal of the entire old Eastlands.

Here we would put up modern high-rise apartment structures with world-class infrastructure and in a masterstroke, double the entire annual housing stock whilst creating employment.

 In another masterstroke, we could also build another world-class stadium (and then lease it to my beloved Gor Mahia) with the ability of hosting concerts and other cultural activities. All these would be achieved within a defined time frame.

There are many great things happening in this country; we have discovered oil, we have a new Constitution and we have greatest athletes in the world.

Let us now give them a tournament that shows our rebirth. It will give us a great party as well as a great place to live in thereafter.

The writer is a director at AIA and Vice-chair of the AAK’s Chapter of Construction Project Management.