KINORU STADIUM – MERU
Kinoru Stadium is located in Meru town and is the main stadium in the county. Kinoru Stadium has a length of 0.77 kilometers and has hosted a number of important sports events of national stature. These include; Tusker safari sevens rugby tournament and Kenya Premier league football matches among others. Kinoru Stadium is undergoing a massive upgrade of the existing structure to a 10,000 capacity stadium complete with the necessary player and spectator facilities & additional basketball, netball, tennis and volleyball courts. This will see the Stadium achieve a number of objectives such as; enhance a sense of community through sport, generate revenue for Meru County and encourage sustainable development strategies.
The upgrade is expected to see the following structures and facilities build-in into the stadium complex;
• 10,000 seater stadium with public, VIP and VVIP seating.
In Kenya, baseball was introduced after the collapse of the British rounder’s a sport similar to baseball that was famous in 1960’s. However, the sport was only played in the American schools only in Kenya until 1972 when baseball and softball federation were registered in Nairobi.
In Meru central sub-county, baseball was not known in the area until 2010 when the sport was started as a challenge thrown to the Deputy County Commissioner Mr. Samuel W. Kimiti by the Kenya Little League President Mr. George Mahinda. This was during the MDG’s football tournament themed “Kick poverty out of Meru” at Kariene sports ground, Meru central sub-county.
Since then, the sport has grown not only in the sub-county but the entire county and Meru is known as the home of baseball in the country. Teams have been developing ever since and recently, during the World cup African eliminations that Meru hosted, 13 out of the 18 National team players were from Meru with their coach AP Constable Francis Muchiri picked as the national team Head coach.
This has also created interest from other baseball enthusiasts from all over the world with some even coming all the way to be part of the history. County Government of Meru hosted coaches from Canada,Japan, Germany, USA, Uganda and Tanzania and more are still planning to have a program with us including ‘pearl of Africa’ and ‘play global international’ organizations.Since inception, we have taken teams all around the East African region. We have taken teams to Kampala Uganda (4 times), Mwanza Tanzania, Dar-es-salaam Tanzania, Nakuru, Migori, Nairobi, Mombasa and Machakos. Apart from that, our coach Francis Muchiri was selected to attend the All African baseball coaches’ conference and the Major League Baseball player’s elite camp in South Africa from 28th November 2014 to 13th December, 2014. Through baseball there is a huge project coming up where we shall have the first of its kind in form of a sports university, sports academy and a baseball complex in Kirwiro, Meru central sub-county. This is already in advanced stage as the county Government of Meru has promised to be part of the plan. The community already has given the land for the project totaling 56 acres.
Deputy county commissioner has been receiving awards for the good job baseball has done to the society. These awards includes; MDG’s Award, DEB Award, UN Award, DC of the year Award, MDG trust Award, SOYA Award (Community Hero of the year 2014). In the recent African elimination Kenya took the fourth position in Africa. Meru central have won the county and national trophies in both boys and girls. The girls took the East Africa trophy in Migori.
