Sports CS Amina opens WRC Safari Rally offices in Finland

The World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally has opened an office in Lahti, Finland to coordinate its activities in continental Europe and also help  boost trade and cultural ties between Kenya and Finland.

WRC Safari Rally Chief Executive Officer Phineas Kimathi said on Tuesday from Lahti that they have also set up a stand at WRC Finland which starts today in Jyvaskyla to showcase Kenyan products including branded Safari Rally Kenya coffee, merchandise and images.

This is the first office to be opened by a Kenyan sporting federation abroad that will become a permanent mobile trade fair in all World Rally Championship (WRC) events.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed presided over the colourful ceremony in Lahti. The CS unveiled a Kenyan trade fair stand stocked with our finest coffee beans, merchandise and 2021 WRC Safari Rally images.

“We want to learn from the best. This project intends to plant one tree for every kilogramme of Kenyan coffee purchased,” she added.

CS Amina said the objective of the WRC Safari Rally office is to promote Kenya as a major tourism destination, shore up trade between the two countries and promote the Safari Rally Greening Legacy Project which has a target of planting 19 million seedlings in the next three years.

“By incorporating ‘Visit Kenya’ as part of the Safari coffee project, as the Kenyan coffee sells in the Europe rallies, so do our tourist numbers increase.

“This project twins the Greening Legacy and Kenyan coffee sales thereby achieving the forestation goals and our trade volumes,” said Amina.

Finland has already created Team Finland to achieve climate change goals between 2020-30.

“Cooperation through the private sector, academic and state institutions, as well as policy advocacy on national and multilateral arenas, are instrumental for achieving this goal,"  said Team Finland in its blue print.

Kimathi said the objective of this new venture in collaboration with Red Soil, a Finnish company led by Reinikanen Maijakaisa, who has strong east African roots, is to promote trade, environmental issues and cooperation through the Safari.

“We are encouraging the Finns who may not attend the Safari to adopt the event by buying one tree for one kilogramme of Kenyan coffee they buy,” he said.
“This is a new way of promoting Kenya’s export market and further enable the WRC Safari to become sustainable,” he said.