Kenyans should rally together and heed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive of Covid-19 containment for sporting activities to resume as soon as possible and so that scheduled sporting events are salvaged.
Top on the agenda is the fate of the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) later this month in Nairobi and Naivasha as a final dry run for the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC)Safari Rally set for June 23-27.
While the lockdown in five counties: Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru, Machakos, and Kajiado will impact heavily on the economic welfare of Kenyans, the government’s efforts to contain the ravages of the Covid-19 third wave is a timely move, and life can return to normal if people social distance, maintain hygiene, and wear masks.
The Safari exited the WRC circuit in 2002 but was reinstated in 2019 after seven years of hard work by the government and Kenya Motor Sport Federation (KMSF), although derailed last year by Covid which also disrupted the world’s sporting calendar.
Nonetheless, this disruption only spurred the WRC Safari Rally team to redouble its efforts in anticipation for a well-organised world-class event this June.
The International Motorsport Federation (FIA) has continued to send experts to assist Kenya on Safari preparations.
These frontline workers defied Covid threats and have proven to the world that Kenya is still a safe place to visit.
Similar seals of approval were executed by the Kenya Golf Union and Athletics Kenya in staging the Magical Kenya Golf tournament and Kip Keino Classic Continental Tour, respectively.
The two federations observed World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19 protocols to the letter, again showing to the world that Kenya is not doing badly as naysayers might have thought.
The KMSF also staged the season-opening KCB Nakuru Rally last February and was poised for the next round in Machakos last weekend before the new government’s Covid-19 directive.
The Safari team has gone a step further by appointing a Covid delegate and is applying the FIA pandemic guideline for the ARC and Safari.
Already all top officials involved in the Safari have undergone mandatory Covid tests while the KMSF tested all the pandemic mitigating factors in the Nakuru Rally with no negative results recorded. Vaccinations should be in order.
This now creates a national duty for the Kenyan media to be the storyteller to avoid the always skewed information about the country from the foreign press.
Like in the Kip Keino Classic when media operations were executed by locals, the Safari, and future international events held in Kenya can always be done by local expertise also.
For example, last year some foreign news outlets tried to link the Covid outbreak with the locust menace which was ravaging the northern Kenya region some 1,000 kilometres away from the Safari’s proposed routes in Naivasha and Nakuru. Such negativity unless check-mated could be another source of damaging false reporting.
The FIA is determined to ensure Kenya hosts the Safari and has introduced a raft of measure on competitors, officials, support crew and importantly media operations.
This, therefore, puts the media on the spot to lead the way in observing the Covid containment guidelines and to tell the Kenyan story.
Despite Covid-19 disruption worldwide there is a lot of excitement with countries on standby to replace hosts facing Covid challenges.
Acropolis Greece has already replaced WRC Copec Rally Chile after an eight-year absence, and will be the 10th round of the WRC on September 9-12 after the country finalised a multi-year agreement.
Copec Rally Chile has unfortunately been cancelled due to continued travel and other restrictions amid the pandemic.
The Acropolis was first held in 1951. It became regarded as one of the WRC’s toughest rounds, as twisty and rocky mountain roads combined with intense heat and choking dust to provide a fierce challenge. BY DAILY NATION