The WRC Safari Rally, returning to the high profile FIA World Rally Championship calendar for the first time since 2002, is also part of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) allowing local drivers to measure their skills against the best in the world.

The Safari, staged in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the Naivasha area in the Great Rift Valley, will lead through some of the roads that were in use in the 2002 event. To have reached this far required commitment from the Kenya Motor Sport Federation and government’s appointed WRC Safari Rally with the Kenyan President His Excellency President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta taking an active role in the Safari’s revival.

The event – and motor sport in Kenya – will be the first to benefit from the assistance of the sporting taskforce put in place as a joint initiative by the FIA and WRC Promoter, with expert personnel from existing events appointed to provide support and advice to local organisers of new rounds or those returning to the WRC roster.

The Safari is a part of the Kenyan heritage since 1953 when a group of rally drivers decided to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England who learnt of the death of her father while on holiday in Kenyan once year early.

It is always a state function with cars been flagged off by the Head of State since 1963 when Kenyan attained independence from Britain.