The Ministry of Sports has officially began a countdown to the spectacular Safari Rally that is returning that falls on its traditional date of Easter holidays.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba yesterday at Talanta Plaza in Nairobi, marked 27 days to the ever exciting rally as he unveiled the team that will be in charge of delivering a remarkable event.
Namwamba congratulated the new secretariat and the project oversight team,noting that he was banking on the for a top notch show for Kenya and beyond.

The Project Oversight team is led by CS Namwamba and Principal Secretary Peter Tum while Charles Gacheru will lead the Secretariat after being appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer.

“Today is a special day,we are starting the ‘Road to Vasha’ and we officially begin the countdown and it is exactly 27 days to this important event.When we are doing this countdown to Naivasha,it is all hands on deck and we are deploying the expertise to deliver a special an incredible event.I have huge faith in the new team to stage a to p notch rally,” Namwamba told People Sport on Thursday afternoon.

This year’s Safari Rally is the third leg of the 13 legs on the World Rally Championship calendar after being moved from June to end of March. Minister Ababu revealed that he had to travel to Greece last year for talks on order to see the return of the Safari Rally to its historical Easter holiday calendar.

The Ministry has further said that there is a significant budget slashing to ensure reasonable spending and value for money.

“We have have succeeded in cutting the budget for rally significantly.Last year,we reduced the budget by more than Sh 1 billion because we want to see value for money.Every shilling used in the event must reflect value for money,” Namwamba said.

Top World Rally Championship (WRC) drivers will grace the official launch of the Kenya Rally School which will coincide with Loldia Shakedown in Naivasha on March 27.

Meanwhile, the launch of the Rally School will be open to the public and will take place immediately after the 5km Ndulele Shakedown Stage. Ababu revealed that the Rally school is one of the Ministry’s Legacy Projects that will be used as a yardstick to ascertain the next generation of Kenyan rally drivers.

The CS also revealed that he is in talks with WRC Promoter to unveil the school as soon as the dust settles on shakedown. Shakedown is a pre-race activity that helps teams to dust off the cobwebs as well as warm their engines well in time for action proper.

Namwamba said: “We now start a deliberate countdown of 27 days through to Shakedown at Ndulele where fans will have an opportunity to view the first look of WRC Rally 1 Hybrid machines in action. We are now deploying our experts to deliver a world-class rally.

Focus is now on the event and it’s all hands on the deck.” The CS continued: “The schedule to unveil the rally school is tailormade to coincide with the official launch of the rally school, one of the key legacy projects of Government.

Excellency President William Samoei Ruto announced on June 9 during the Launch of Talanta Hela that the Rally School will be introduce to help discover young buddying talents.”