As Kenya hosts the fifth edition of the revamped World Rally Championship Safari Rally that runs from Thursday, March 20 to Sunday, March 23, many Kenyans will look back at the nostalgia of the rally that first began in 1953.
The Safari Rally, formerly known as the East African Coronation Rally, was established after the late Queen Elizabeth II of England after her coronation.
A conversation between two motorsport enthusiasts Eric Cecil and his cousin Neil Vincent in early 1952 inspired the creation of a motorsports event that would later earn the brutal reputation of the 'World's Toughest Rally.' Vincent, not wanting to compete at the newly built Langa Langa circuit, which was in Malewa, Rift Valley, said: "I can imagine nothing more boring than driving round and round the same piece of track.
But if you organise an event where we get into our cars, slam our doors, go halfway across Africa and back, and the first car home is the winner, I will be in it." With that, the 'Coronation Safari' was born, becoming an annual event with the race starting in Nairobi, going around Lake Victoria through Uganda and Tanganyika (Tanzania), before finishing in Kenya.
