Kenyans chill on new ice rink

2005-12-26 09:57

Karen Calabria

Nairobi - Eager for a dose of winter, Kenyans are stepping out of blazing equatorial heat into the chill of east Africa's first ice rink.

In a country where the only snow most people will ever see is at the peak of the country's highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, would-be Kenyan hockey stars and figure skaters are flocking to the Solar Ice Rink in Nairobi's Panari Hotel.

The 1 393 square metre rink opened on December 16 and has been billed the largest of Africa's three ice rinks, accommodating 200 skaters.

The rink cost nearly $700 000 (about R4.5m) to build, and has a monthly maintenance and staffing bill of $11 600(about R75 000).

Much of the expense comes from the cost of keeping the ice at a constant - 25 degrees and the ambient rink temperature at 12 degrees - in African heat.

Although Olivia Otieno, a local disc jockey who picked up her enthusiasm for skating while growing up in Canada, raves about the rink she did say there was "one thing wrong with it - it's very expensive".

In a country where about 60% of the population live on less than R6 a day, the entry fee isn't cheap - 800 Kenyan shillings (R71) for adults and 500 shillings (R45) for children.

Otieno said: "But it's a fantastic idea. Home-bred Kenyans ten years from now could be competing in the Winter Olympics, something we'd never dreamed of before."

Siggi Loeper, general manager of the Panari, has already been contacted by Kenyan schools interested in setting up ice hockey teams and is discussing the possibility of an African figure skating federation with Africa's other ice rinks in Egypt and South Africa.

- AFP