Government promises to fully support 2019 Safari Rally

 

Rally Navigator Tuta Mionki 2018 Motorsports Personality of the Year receives a trophy from KMSF Chairman and WRC Safari Project CEO Phineas Kimathi on Saturday, January 19, 2019. [Standard Sports]

The government will fully support the 2019 FIA World Rally Championships Candidate Event Safari Rally, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Sports and Heritage Rashid Echesa has said.

“Let us acknowledge and salute the government and KMSF efforts in taking the sport a notch higher,” said the minister during the 2018 Kenya Motor Sports Federation (KMSF) annual gala at the Carnivore Restaurant on Saturday night.

“This is because as you are aware, the Safari’s WRC campaign is a Jubilee government’s project and its patron is his Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“Indeed, 2018 remains a special year for Motorsport in Kenya.”

In his speech read on his behalf by Deputy Secretary Wesley Martim, Echesa said as the Motorsport fraternity paid tribute to the best of 2018 and celebrates the ultimate Motorsport personality of the year, all eyes will be on Kenya.

“The WRC Safari Rally Project will host the FIA WRC Safari Rally Candidate Event in July and we must win for us to be re-admitted to the world championship next year,” he said.

"Let me thank the team at Kasarani led by your chairman Phineas Kimathi for their tireless efforts in fast-tracking Kenya’s WRC within one calendar year," added Echesa.

"The government has played its part in offering financial, material and moral support to the project and we will continue to meet our mandate as the principal financiers."

According to Echesa, the government has also met its financial obligations to the FIA and WRC promoter.

"I urge corporates to join hands and achieve this dream of a WRC Safari Rally."

“Safari is not only our heritage but has been one of Kenya’s biggest promoters of tourism until 2002 when it was struck off the WRC,” he said.

Tuta Mionki was named 2018 KMSF Motor Sport Personality of the year.