Journey to Nakuru's first public basketball court hits a bump

Basketball in Nakuru County is a sport that has evolved over the course of 55 years.

During this period, Nakuru has nurtured talents that have gone ahead to represent the country in both local and international tournaments.

The most recent achievement came in last year's Kenya Youth Inter-County Sports Association (KYISA) games that were held in Kilifi. The women’s Nakuru county basketball team emerged second after narrowly losing to the Siaya County basketball team 41-48.

Even though the sport has evolved and taken shape over the years, one obstacle remains; the lack of a public basketball court.

The conversation started two years ago on July 5, 2023 when the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) organized a tournament in Nakuru.

This tournament took place in Menengai High School, raising the question, why would a tournament of such a magnitude be held in a high school basketball court?   

It was after talking to different stakeholders that we realized Nakuru county did not have any public basketball court.

However, after the successful campaign by the women’s team last year in April, the issue of building a public court stopped being a suggestion and it became a matter of importance, considering the team managed to be successful without having a central place from where they can conduct their training.

A month later, in May, a public court had already started taking shape at the Kamukunji Grounds, with the promise of other such courts in London estate and various other places in Nakuru County.

Nine months down the line, Nakuru is yet to realize its dream of having its first ever public basketball court.

In a phone interview, Josephine Atieno, the County Sports Executive says the construction was stopped due to the shoddy work done by the contractor.

“According to the contractor it was complete, until we went there and found that it was not up to standard. Therefore, we retained the money we were supposed to pay him until they built the court to the desired standard of the players,” she says.

Upon inquiring on the money allocated for the project or when we would expect the basketball court to be completed, the CECM said she would get back to us with the details but that had not happened by the time of publishing this article.