Kimathi: Safety not negotiable

Fans watch the 2019 Safari Rally at Soysambu in Elementaita, Nakuru on July 6, 2019. PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE |

What you need to know:

  • World Rally Championship Safari Project CEO urges sport’s fans to be careful

Safari Rally chief Phineas Kimathi Saturrday implored motorsport fans to exercise safety as they follow this year’s competition.

This follows Saturday’s accident that claimed one life and left three other fans seriously injured when their car rolled several times as they left the Soysambu section of this year’s World Rally Championship candidate rally.

“Rallying, and the Safari Rally, has always been about safety ever since (the International Automobile Federation President) Jean Todt visited Kenya,” Kimathi said in reference to Todt’s 2015 visit to drum up support for the Safari Rally’s return to the World Rally Championship.

Todt, a former rally driver, just like Kimathi, is also a United Nations special envoy on road safety.

“I hope people understand that they have to be responsible for their own safety.

“Safety starts with you and me, and we can only expect people to stay safe and drive responsibly,” said Kimathi who is the chief executive officer of the government-funded World Rally Championship Safari Project.

The accident, which happened long after completion of the day’s rallying, came as officials of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) are in Kenya to assess the Safari’s suitability to return to the World Rally Championship.

It should, however, have no negative impact on the FIA officials’ assessment as Safari Rally organisers continue to work overnight to seal all organisational loopholes ahead of the expected announcement that the celebrated Kenyan rally will be back on the global map next year.