Why WRC Safari Rally needs to be commercialised

Fans closely following the 2024 WRC Safari Rally action. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

With pressure to unlock traffic jams that are always on Nakuru/Nairobi Highway in areas around Naivasha on Easter Holidays, this year’s WRC Safari Rally will be held from March 20-23.

The jams in sections of the highway and several roads in Naivasha town have become synonymous with rally days like last year, hence the change of dates.

It inconvenienced Safari Rally drivers, their crew members, engineers and other officials on time management in the four-day-rally extravaganza.

But after a careful assessment of the situation to salvage the reputation of the event by WRC officials, they decided to move it away from Easter to the normal dates but in the same month.

“We made the decision to skip the traditional Easter Safari Rally dates so that mistakes witnessed in the past are not repeated again. It inconvenienced local and foreign drivers who observe strict time management. This was reached so that we adhere to International Automobile Federation (FIA) rules and possibly retain our WRC status,” said WRC Safari Rally Steering Committee member Maina Muturi.

He said it was in the best interest of ensuring the event meet the required international standards and Kenya’s WRC Safari Rally does not lose the WRC status that they skipped the Easter dates.

“The status (WRC) is a centre of attraction and sports tourism to us. We had to do all in our means to ensure we adhered to FIA requirements for us not to lose out in totality,” said Muturi.

Last year, the event was held on Easter holidays, which resulted in officials detecting some grey areas in the event’s organisation. Professional drivers from leading car manufacturers raised concerns with the WRC Safari Rally Local Organising Committee (LOC) on a number of issues on time management at the end of it.

“This is why we had the final prize giving ceremony held at Hell's Gate National Park last year, the final stage of the rally championships instead of Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute (KWSTI), the location of the service park. It was meant to save time on foreign drivers who were flying out on the same day for other global duties abroad,” said Muturi.

And he said they were out to make it more successful this time round with the new changes in one of the roughest and toughest WRC global rallies.

And with the release of the 2025 FIA calendar of events, all professional and local drivers are bracing for the tough event, which has proved tough to some of the most experienced drivers globally.

“This is one of the world’s roughest and toughest rallies but it’s good to compete in such rallies because they widen your scope and experience in tackling more similar competitions globally,” said Kalle Rovanpera, last year’s eventual winner at the end of the event.

And as all these happen, there's pressure from stakeholders to have the global rally run from a commercial point of view like the days of Marlboro Safari Rally.

“We need the government to surrender part of its stakes in management of the rally so that international or national corporate sponsors can inject money into the event. This will allow us to compete at the same footing with other global rally drivers in the chase for top honours,” said a local driver who sought anonymity.

In his personal opinion on the matter, Muturi echoed the sentiments saying that the rally needs to be partly commercialised.

“The government needs to take up matters of security, clearing and forwarding of competing machines at the ports or airports and immigration issues. If this is granted, then sky is the limit for WRC Safari Rally as a world class lucrative racing competition,” pointed out Muturi.

And as the WRC contract ends next year, he said chances are high FIA could extend it by another four years up-to 2030.

“This is because we have corrected many grey areas that could have jeopardised our chances of FIA renewing the contract of Safari Rally as a WRC event,” stated Muturi.

And as local and foreign professional drivers gear up for the event, the number of competitions in the calendar of the Kenya National Rally Championships (KNRC) has drastically reduced.

The events have been reduced from ten (last year) to six this year under the auspices of Kenya Motorsports Federation (KMSF).

“This reduction could be attributed to a number of factors, with the main one being economic hardships,” said Muturi, who’s also a KMSF official.