Meet Tuta Mionki – the first woman to show men ‘dust’

Female navigator Tuta Mionki [Courtesy]

Tuta Mionki’s calm and assured march to the podium belied the excitement that was bubbling underneath and at 10 pm last Saturday.

The Nairobi-based human resource consultant savoured a title which has traditionally remained a preserve of some of Kenya’s most accomplished racing personalities. Mionki, who has now been elevated from the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) Division One to the Premier Class entered her name in the annals of motorsport history as the first ever woman to win the KMSF Motor Sports Personality of the Year, a title that has traditionally exchanged hands amongst motorsport greats like Patrick Njiru, Joginder Singh, Carl Flash Tundo and Baldev Chager just to name but a few.

Although Tuta may not sit around the same table with Kenyan navigator greats of the likes of Tim Jessop and Ammar Slatch but Kenya’s top racing lady surely deserves the recognition.

Tuta is an amazing navigator.

“I have always loved a flat-out approach and this gives me lots of confidence to perform in fast and furious conditions,” she says.

Tuta is an amazing navigator [Courtesy]

 And how did she venture into this male-dominated field considering that very few women are racing in recent times?

“In our generation, we started watching racing cars during which the Safari was a round of the World Rally Championship and dad would take us to watch the cars. I grew up in Thika where they had a special stage in Del Monte area. I wonder how much we used to see at night but the passion came from there. We had a bit of a break when we went back to school but we started spectating and I kept thinking it must be too much fun and I said I wanted to do this one day.

That’s when I met Bengi in the whole spectating thing. I was guided by Charles Hinga (of Auto Movers) and ASRA in the art of reading and writing notes. And from there it was something I really craved to do more so from the breaks in November and December. Sadly, we didn’t have too many women in the sport and hopefully, we can get to the 18-plus women who used to rally in 2012 and 2013. However, all is not lost as we have some young girls coming through the sport from other disciplines like autocross and karting as young as 7. There is Kiana Rajput, Shanna Jessop and few other girls coming in.”

The desire for high speed saw her succumb to the lure of rallying. Also, the desire to emulate other women in the sport had her love for the man and machine game ingrained in her racing career. It was a dream come true for her when she was asked to navigate Bengi in the Menengai Cream team.

Tuta started racing in June 2011 in Dol Dol with Eric Bengi in Rally Raid. She later moved to rallying in 2012 in Nakuru with Victor Okundi of Mombasa. 

The former two-wheel drive navigator champion was rewarded for a successful season which saw her clinch the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) Division 1 and Group N categories.

Tuta who navigated Eric Bengi in a Subaru Impreza N12 beat two other nominees to the coveted title.