Nairobi 2029: Kasarani at the heart of Kenya's pledges
Kenya promises the resources needed for the first senior World Athletics Championships on African soil. At Kasarani, the work under way for AFCON 2027 will be built on to host the event in 2029.
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Archive: Kasarani stadium on 9 February 2019, during a football match. Endesia94 / CC BY-SA 4.0. SNA logo added; adaptation under the same licence.
Work at Kasarani will not stop with the preparations for AFCON 2027. William Ruto has announced further upgrades for the 2029 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi. In Eldoret, the Kenyan president and Sebastian Coe also discussed funding and the fight against doping: three issues to watch after the award, made in September, of the first senior World Championships to be held on African soil.
One stadium, two major events
The Moi International Sports Centre in Kasarani is already undergoing works for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations. Ruto plans for it to be upgraded further for the 2029 World Championships. This is a pledge of additional improvements, not an announcement that the stadium is ready to stage a global athletics championship.
The president has committed to mobilising the resources needed to stage the event. However, the announcements from the visit gave no details of an overall budget for the World Championships or a timetable for the additional works. The amount actually committed and the delivery milestones will show how far this pledge goes.
Filling the stands every night
For Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president, success will also depend on the crowds. He wants the stadium full every night. The challenge will be to turn Kenyan public interest in athletics into regular attendance in the stands across the competition's various sessions.
Nairobi already has international pedigree: the under-18 World Championships in 2017, the under-20 edition in 2021 and the annual Kip Keino Classic meeting. Hosting the seniors will be a new responsibility, bringing the world's best athletes together in one stadium.
Preparation goes beyond the facilities
The fight against doping is also among the obligations discussed in Eldoret. Its place on the agenda does not amount to a blanket endorsement of Kenya's system: it is a reminder that preparing for the World Championships also concerns the integrity of the sport.
This is Coe's first visit to Kenya since the award. With Jon Ridgeon, World Athletics chief executive, he also met Sports Minister Salim Mvurya, Jackson Tuwei, president of Athletics Kenya, and Ibrahim Hussein, chair of the Nairobi 2029 bid committee.
The Nairobi World Championships will follow Beijing 2027 and precede Munich 2031. For African fans, the historic award is therefore settled; the next useful information will concern the resources, the works and the arrangements adopted to actually host the event.