Over three decades after the country built its last national stadium, the imposing Talanta Stadium continues to rise above Nairobi’s skyline, giving sports enthusiasts a sneak preview into the future.
Also known as the Talanta Sports City because it offers other crucial sports facilities such as the three modern training pitches for football, rugby and athletics, the Talanta stadium opens a new sporting era for the region.
A flagship project of President Ruto, the construction of Talanta Stadium started on March 1 last year boasts of a seating capacity of 60,000. The project is being delivered with military precision and around-the-clock construction.
The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) is overseeing the country’s biggest construction in 38 years, playing the supervisory role with China Road and Bridge Corporation as the main contractor charged with delivering the project.
Major Victor King’e, the Ministry of Defence project architect, has expressed optimism that the Talanta Sports City will be ready for handover in March 2026. He is the Project Manager.
An architect by profession, Major Kinge said Talanta Stadium, which is strategically positioned along Ngong Road, is now 68 per cent complete. It is also adjacent to Jamhuri ASK Showground and is accessible through the Southern bypass.
Major King’e said a big portion of the stadium will be ready by the end of this year with the handover scheduled for March 1, 2026. A first-of-its-kind in the region, Talanta Sports City is a fusion of art and technology.
For instance, Major King’e said a big portion of the stadium, especially the outer part, will be ready before the end of the year.
“However, to operationalise and be able to use the facility, we will complete that by the 1st of March 2026. That will be 24 months from when we started,” he said, adding that the project is a fusion of art and technology.
“We are using a lightweight roof canopy, which works using hydraulically tensioned steel cables, which is the first of its kind in the region, ” he said as heavy construction equipment rolled and gigantic cranes weighing hundreds of tonnes lifted construction materials through the sky. When you also look at it from the point of view of how it is a fusion of art, when you look at the form of the building, it’s a very unique form,” Major Kinge said, adding that the shape of the stadium resembles a soccer ball.
“It is pure and geometric on the outside. It also has some elements of our national heritage in the form of the shields. We will have a total of eight shields all around the stadium. The shields are derived from the national flag. We will have the shield and the two spears,” he explained.
Each of those eight shields represents an entrance into the stadium. And the reason why they elected to have the shields at that point is for ease of way-finding, he said, adding that fans will just look for the shield, which will be painted in the colour of the national flag to know where the entry is.
This will also add to the aspect of art within the facility and a sense of identity for the stadium, he said, adding: “I believe it is the first of its kind in the region. It was a very ambitious project, but at the same time it is aspiring to become what we want to become as a nation, to become a first-world nation.”
Noting that Talanta Stadium meets the international standards set by the world football body, FIFA, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Major Kinge said that Talanta Stadium is unique in the sense that it is the first football stadium in the country.
“It will be the first in the country without a running track inside the stadium, so it will only be primarily for football and rugby. In addition to that, we will have three training pitches, one of which will act as a smaller, think of it as a mini stadium, with a grandstand with a seating capacity of 1,500 spectators,” he stated further.
“So the uniqueness of this stadium is that you will not just have the main stadium, but you will have three embedded training facilities, making it a facility that can work independently, especially during a football tournament,” he continued.
