Kenyan women drivers ready to be counted come race day

On Thursday next week, four women will line up against 37 men in the WRC Safari Rally.

These four women can read the exploits of Michele Mouton for inspiration.

The French woman rally driver took on the best men in the Mecca of rallying and beat almost all of them hands down in the 1982 World Rally Championship.

Such was her pace that she lost the world title by the slimmest of margins. She is best remembered in Kenya for finishing third in the 1983 Safari Rally.

She visits Kenya annually as a member of the FIA Safety delegate, and security men who are assigned to her have lived to tell stories of a supremely talented woman behind the wheel of a car.

Well in her 70s, Mouton has shown her awesome driving skills during route reconnaissances before every edition of the Safari Rally since 2019.

Before Mouton arrived here in 1983 as a member of the Audi WRC team that also had Hannu Mikkola and Stig Blomqvist of Finland and Sweden respectively, several Kenyan women had shown their mettle during the five days Safari Rally of the old was held. 

Anne Teeth, Sylvia King and Pauru Choda remain living examples of femme accomplie.

This year the women, though all driving outdated Subaru Imprezas, will be looking for a 100 per cent finish record to give Kenyans an opportunity to cheer with national fervour.

Pauline Sheghu, Jennifer Malik, Tinashe Gatimu and Lisa Christofferson -- racing under the Talanta Hela team sponsored by the government -- should not be considered as flower girls. 

They are there for the challenge and looking forward to beating several men at their game.

The women are part of the 19 drivers who will compete in the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) category of the Safari, and as Malik, a mother of three young children, put it on Tuesday after being offered financial support by Betika gaming company, Safari is serious business and not a weekend outing.

Malik is very active in motorsport though less visible in the auto cross and X-cross racing where she honed her skills. She looks up to Betika team leader and creator of X-cross racing Carl Tundo for guidance.

Gatimu, 19, will be co-driven by her mother Caroline, a member of the WRC Safari Rally Organising Management Committee. Sheghu, the communication director in the Sports Ministry, will be co-driven by experienced Lines Ayuko while Christofferson, navigated by Michelle Chao, is very active in women motorsport activities.

Unfortunately Tash Tundo, one of the most successful women drivers in Kenya will not be competing in the Safari due to medical reasons.

Women rallying has been cited as a big factor in getting youngsters to join the sport as the participation of women brings the whole family out. Mothers are known to offer uniform influence than men as is always witnessed in the autocross scenes in Machakos and at the Kasarani circuit which are more family oriented than the KNRC series.

But these women cannot continue to thrive in isolation. 

They need support, starting with the cars which are not eligible for competition in WRC-sanctioned events after their competition papers or homologation expired many years ago.

The government and sponsors should come out and offer equipment assistance. Those noisy Subarus aged between 15-20 years are no match to the fire-spitting, tyre-tearing Ford and Skoda Rally 2 and 3 machines which will be racing in the main WRC category of the Safari.

They are actually a liability as they are prone to breaking down.

The drivers, and not only women, should up their publicity campaign to appeal to sponsors and the Kenyan public through all media channels.

[email protected]