We Have the Land. Now We Are Building This: The Ceder Sports Academy Vision

Some of the greatest champions in the history of sport learned to run in the highlands around Eldoret, Kenya. The altitude, the terrain, and above all the people have made this region a name every athletics fan on earth knows. Now, on a green hill in the Murgor Hills, a new institution is determined to widen that legacy far beyond running: to football, volleyball, basketball, cycling, and even the mind sports, and to carry it across Kenya and East Africa.

Ceder Sports Academy was founded in 2024 and received its operating license in April 2025. It was built on a conviction that deserves to be written on every wall in world sport: talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not. The Academy exists to close that gap, identifying, nurturing, and promoting young sporting talent and giving it the training, mentorship, and exposure to compete at county, national, regional, and global level.

A Hill Unlike Any Other

The Academy's home is the Ceder Hills Arboretum, a natural amphitheater of indigenous forest, medicinal plants, rolling trails, and panoramic views over Eldoret. It is already in active use: endurance trails, cycling routes across varying terrain, outdoor training grounds, camping grounds, and community event spaces. Few places anywhere combine in one site what this hill offers naturally: high-altitude training conditions, a conservation treasure, and a sports-tourism destination in the making. That combination is the opportunity.

Proof, Not Promises

Though young, the Academy has already shown it can deliver. In August 2025 it organized the Murgor Hills Community Trail Walk and Run, drawing participants of all ages and backgrounds. In November 2025 it hosted the Ceder Cycling Race, a regional competition that attracted cyclists from across Kenya and Uganda, showcased the hill's extraordinary terrain, raised the profile of emerging athletes, and created economic opportunities for local businesses and residents. An institution that can unite communities and stage regional competitions before its permanent infrastructure even exists is an institution worth backing.

A Vision You Can Walk Through

The masterplan reads like a walk up the hill. Terraced into the lower shoulder, football, volleyball, and basketball courts side by side, with a dedicated equipment center and a container-built athlete facility with changing rooms, washrooms, and showers, because athletes who train daily deserve dignity daily.

Higher on the ridge, ten accommodation cabins for athletes and visiting teams, each with en-suite bathrooms, study desks, and verandas over the valley. A mid-slope pool for recovery and conditioning. A zipline from the hilltop. A cycling trail looping the perimeter, building on the route of the Ceder Cycling Race. A campsite anchoring the grounds. Every element is designed, costed, and ready to move from concept to construction.

More Than Sport

What sets Ceder apart is that the vision was never sport alone. The Academy's six values are excellence, integrity, discipline, inclusivity, community, and sustainability, and its expansion plan reads like a development program for an entire region: a medical and wellness center; learning and mentorship facilities; a performance development center; a youth resource center; community training facilities open to local schools and organizations; a conservation and education center protecting the Arboretum's indigenous medicinal plants; an indoor games center where chess, scrabble, and table tennis train minds alongside bodies; and a women's empowerment hub supporting skills, entrepreneurship, and economic independence. As the Academy puts it: by supporting a child, we strengthen a family. By strengthening families, we create stronger communities.

The Invitation to Investors

The build is phased and each phase is a distinct opportunity. Phase one delivers the sports pitches, storage, and the athlete facility. Phase two adds the accommodation cabins, pool, and cycling infrastructure. Phase three completes the zipline and the community and conservation facilities. Support can take the form of funding a full facility, backing a phase of the masterplan, or contributing to the build as a whole.

For an investor or partner, from Africa or abroad, the case is rare in its completeness: land secured in the world's most storied sporting highlands, an operating license, a leadership team that has already delivered regional events, a sports-tourism destination with year-round appeal, and a social impact story spanning youth, women, conservation, and community livelihoods. This is a chance to be a founding builder of East Africa's next great sporting institution, present from the first stone.

The land is secured. The vision is designed. The Academy is already at work. What is missing is the infrastructure, and that is the invitation: to nurture talent, transform lives, empower communities, protect nature, and build a lasting legacy for future generations.

Rebecca Kimeto is a serial entrepreneur from Kenya and Country President for Kenya of Salvator Mundi Global.

Ceder Sports Academy · Ceder Hills Arboretum, Murgor Hills, Eldoret, Kenya. All facility visuals are concept renders; infrastructure not yet built.