Nyayo National Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. It is located near the city centre. The stadium holds 30,000 people and was built in 1983. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The popular AFC Leopards football club plays most of its home games at Nyayo stadium. The stadium is also used for athletics and various ceremonies. Other facilities at the Nyayo Stadium include a gymnasium and a 50-metre swimming pool.
The completion of the Nyayo Stadium gave Kenya the opportunity to be placed in the category of nations that were invited to bid for the 4th All-Africa Games in 1987, a bid that was awarded to Kenya, giving it International status. In essence, the Nyayo Stadium "gave birthâ to Moi International Sports Centre.
The Nyayo Stadium is the host venue of the 2010 African Championships in Athletics.
The stadium was renamed to the Coca Cola National Stadium after the multi-national company won the naming rights to the stadium in February 2009. The deal was worth USD 1.5 million and would have sees the beverage company do branding, marketing and naming rights to the whole stadium for three years. Three months later, however, Coca Cola withdraw from the contract, because the Kenyan government wanted to have the stadium branded as Coca Cola Nyayo National Stadium. but was renamed again to the Nyayo National Stadium, as the Government of Kenya wanted it branded. This decision has been widely criticized by many Kenyan citizens, because they believe that Coca Cola would have heavily improved and popularized the stadium.
The stadium houses headquarters for the Football Kenya Federation and Athletics Kenya.
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