Cost of constructing Talanta Stadium was inflated by Sh10.85 billion

The cost of building Talanta Stadium was inflated by a whopping Sh10.85 billion. This has been revealed by an audit report by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu. At the same time, the audit report has established that the method in which the tender for the construction of the Talanta Stadium was issued violated Kenya’s procurement laws.

According to the report, the National Treasury had approved Sh35 billion for the funding of the stadium. This money was to be drawn from the Sports and Arts Social Development Fund (SASDF) and would come with a six-year repayment plan. However, the cost was inflated to Sh45.85 billion.

“This is against a contract of Sh45.85 billion, resulting in an unsupported price variation of Sh10.85 billion,” the report stated.

In addition to the inflation, the audit report has established that the contract that the government signed on was formulated in a way that is punitive towards Kenya.

For instance, the audit found out that there are clauses that state that late payments to the contractor will attract interest rates of three percent above the Centra Bank of Kenya’s average base lending rate on the very first day that the payments become due.

For instance, the audit report showed that the Talanta Stadium project implementation report as at June 1, 2025 indicated that the stadium had a completion rate of 44.54 percent. At that point, it still had 15 months left to the expected completion date.

Cumulative payments due to the contractor stood at Sh2 billion. This was 4.5 percent of the contract amount, which meant that the taxpayer was already exposed to penalties and interest charges.

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According to Ms Gathungu’s report, there is no analysis that was done to determine whether Kenya was getting any value for money from the Talanta Stadium project.

“The contract was awarded through a direct procurement method which did not meet competitive criteria demanded by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015,” Ms Gathungu’s audit report stated.