Betika’s all- female sponsored team in the World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally from left; Linet Ayuko, Maxine Wahome and Chantal Young.

| Pool

Why WRC Safari Rally is a big deal to Kenyans

What you need to know:

  • WRC Safari Rally has an official greening legacy project that aims to plant 19 million trees across the country over the next three years to mark the number of years Kenya was out of the famous world series. Wow! Talk about leaving a carbon footprint.
  • For me, just the thought of reliving “Safo”, makes my head go light and my knees weak. True love that has never diminished.

I just can’t help getting nostalgic whenever I think of the Safari Rally, and the fact that it will be staged next week as part of the World Rally Championships for the first time in 19 years is getting me all dreamy.

So much so that last week I was sufficiently inspired to make a brave, practical attempt to demonstrate to my two sons – aged 14 and 10, just how much of a big deal the Safari Rally was to my generation and that before it.  

I constructed – or should I say attempted to construct? – a toy car from scratch just like we did decades back. I used locally – read homestead - assembled material and technical know-how gathered from older siblings and friends in a familiar age, gone by.

First, I collected a Vim scouring powder plastic container that I cut up with a scissor and shaped into a car. I then dispatched my old, rubber Bata slippers to serve as my car tyres, carving out neat circles after drawing them using the Vim container top.

Lacking the desired wire to use as my axles I raided the house makuti broom and plucked off two sticks – (psst, do not tell my wife) that I used to attach the rubber tyres.

To ensure the toy car had extra stability I mounted double tyres on each end. A knitting thread was fixed at the front of the hood to be used to pull the car into motion using human power.

Liking my job thus far, I felt motivated enough to add extras that included fixing mudguards, cutting out windows and painting the car number on the sides and roof using a felt pen.

I secretly “rode” it in the compound to test its viability before proudly presenting it to the youngsters.

“How do you like my car? We used to make them like this for Safari Rally – we called it Safo, when I was your age,” I said, not unlike a child presenting a school report form brimming with grade A scores to the parent.

The lads hardly gave the toy car a glance, the youngest giving it the briefest of tentative examination, before they bent down to their electronic gadgets to continue playing the popular kids online game called Roblox, with not even a grunt of acknowledgement.

So much for “Safo” from my point of view and that of millions of Kenyans who watched live this iconic motorcar race in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

We were enthralled by the speeding machines and daredevil drivers, keenly following their every action, on the road and on Voice of Kenya (VOK) radio and television. The rally was indeed part of our culture and religiously followed around Easter time.

I am sure if I took my two boys to watch the WRC Safari Rally in Naivasha next week, next year and the year after that they too will form powerful memories of the races that will last their lifetimes, and which they will perhaps share with their offspring.

But it is not just the nostalgia that makes the return of the WRC Safari Rally to Kenya a big deal.

The four-day WRC Safari Rally is projected to attract over 70 million television viewers in 150 countries giving Kenya positive publicity around the world. The WRC+ TV that has over 20 million subscribers will cover some of the Safari stages live.

The loan-hungry Kenya Government would need to apply for another multi-million dollars one to pay for such airtime in form of advertisement.

And this Safari Rally is a Godsend for our economy that has been reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The travel and hospitality sector will directly gain millions of shillings from the rally and related activities.

For starters, I am reliably informed that because of its WRC status, close to 1,200 persons involved with the rally will fly into Kenya.

They will include drivers, mechanics, support crew and sponsors. Some are already in the country. Had it not been for Covid-19, the numbers would have been much bigger.

A WRC Safari Rally official tells me over 150 vans and passenger cars will be hired for use in the Safari transporting key personnel and VIPs

The rally itself will hire over 1,000 safety marshals assisted by a similar number of police and National Youth Service recruits.

All these people will need accommodation and food giving the struggling establishments in Nairobi, Naivasha, Gilgil and Nakuru a timely business boost.

I am made to understand that by the time the rally begins WRC will have shipped in 64 containers of equipment via the port of Mombasa.

The economic windfall to the country will certainly run into hundreds of millions if not billions of shillings. The legacy of the rally will also be significant.

Naivasha will benefit from a newly constructed 220 metres by 90 metres service park, the biggest in the WRC series, that could be conceivably converted into a racing track for the local motorsport fraternity.

WRC Safari Rally has an official greening legacy project that aims to plant 19 million trees across the country over the next three years to mark the number of years Kenya was out of the famous world series. Wow! Talk about leaving a carbon footprint.

For me, just the thought of reliving “Safo”, makes my head go light and my knees weak. True love that has never diminished.