Restore all previous Safari Rally routes to boost tourism industry

 

It was wonderful to see Safari Rally make a comeback in Kenya as a World Rally Championship event. Such a shame the fun had to stop in the first place.

That is what we get with bad politics, I guess. Now that it’s here, we must do everything to support the event so that it keeps coming back and continues giving to the tourism industry and the economy.

But first, a little history and a confession. Safari Rally was a big feature in the lives of most people at the Coast. By the time the cars trooped down to Mombasa, they had been through some tough terrain upcountry.

We used to bunk off school (not recommended) to wait by the roadside for hours just to catch a glimpse of the rally cars when they zoomed past along the narrow streets of the island as they made their way down from the savannah.

The days spent outside hotels hosting the crews, with homemade ice lollies, taking in the spectacles, will always be my happiest childhood memories. We walked for miles to get to these hotels. Perhaps, this is a memory children growing up now on the old Safari Rally routes will not have. Why change the routes if they are not broken?

Coastal route

It was unusual this time not to include the coastal route or any other route for Safari Rally, except those leading to Naivasha. I still feel there was not enough justification to kraal the rally cars in one place rather than take them around different parts of the country as it used to be.

This is an annual event with a global audience running into billions of shillings. The world needed to see the country in its full glory, as it always did, taking in the flora and fauna across most of the nation.

Naivasha is an amazing place. But it does not fully represent our tourism market. In fact, it plays only a small part of it , and even that is because of the latest addition of conservancies in and around the town.

There seems to be an attempt at pushing big developments and events to Naivasha but its location is not ideal for everything. The inland container depot that was set up there faced huge opposition, and rightly so. It challenged the economy of Mombasa, which has traditionally been heavily reliant on the sea port.

Economists have argued that using the standard gauge railway (SGR) to support the development of dry ports in Nairobi and Naivasha makes no economic sense and is, in fact, bound to make transportation of cargo even more expensive. Crucially, it bleeds the economy of coastal towns, such as Mombasa, dry.

Major event

Hosting Safari Rally in Naivasha was, therefore, not accidental but another strategic attempt at sabotaging coastal towns that have historical ties with the sport.

Safari Rally came back to Kenya at the right time — when we needed such a major event to not just boost the economy but revive our Covid-19-battered tourism. However, the exclusion of the Coast, a traditional Safari Rally route, from the event has denied local hotels — which are reeling from the impact of the pandemic — a great opportunity to reap financially.

Global events such as Safari Rally are for the benefit of the country and not just a small community or select geographical area. The organisers failed to capitalise on the return of the rally to showcase the beauty of the country, or at least most of it, as it has traditionally done.

This was a great opportunity to use such a global event to, first, support as many areas hit by the pandemic economically and, secondly, take the event across diverse and best topography and scenery Kenya has to offer. ‘Magical Kenya’ is not only Naivasha but the deserts, the beaches and their golden sands and our famous wildlife parks.

Nation-building

Thirdly, it failed to give as many Kenyans the joy of sharing in Safari Rally. Watching it on television is never enough. Take it from me: I saw the real thing. It is much more fun to partake in the live events. It will do no harm to stop for a few days and support the sport and as many towns are allowed to have fun and benefit financially.

We need to re-engineer how we look at developing the country by focusing on our strengths rather than trying to reinvent the wheel by supporting select businesses, communities or individuals. Nation-building means just that.

Every part of the country should develop commensurate with the next. As we support the economy of one area, let us make sure old economies are sustained too. That is true progress.

Hosting Safari Rally only in Naivasha has denied crucial tourism circuits and old routes the opportunity to shine once more. Bring Safari Rally back to all its traditional routes so that we can all benefit and get a chance to have fun with this once-a-year event.    BY DAILY NATION