Over 20 crews get Africa Rally Championship chase off in Kenya

As the World Rally Crews gear up for the Kenyan round of the 2026 World Rally Championship series, African rally crews are equally eager to rev off the Africa Rally Championship bid.

WRC Safari Rally Kenya will make its sixth year running as a World Rally Championship starting this Thursday in Naivasha. 

The event will double as the first round of the Africa Rally Championship.

Over 20 crews have lined up for the African series in ARC, ARC2 and ARC3, respectively. 

Among the notable crews are ARC champions Karan Patel and Carl Tundo from Kenya, along with reigning ARC champions Yasin Nasser from Uganda.

Samman Vohra, Jasmeet Chana, Hamza Anwar, Jeremiah Wahome, among others, will be up for ARC topflight category.

Under ARC2, only Nikhil Sachania and Naveen Pulligila will go head-to-head for the points.

ARC3 has a lineup of rookies who will be featuring in the Safari Rally for the first time. 

Queen Kalimpinya from Rwanda, Oscar Ntambi from Uganda, and Jean Claude Gakwaya from Rwanda will have their debut at the Safari Rally. 

The event starts on Thursday with a shakedown for the WRC crews in the morning. Later in the evening, rally starts proper with stage one in Naivasha.  

This year’s event has shown all signs of being a wet rally, given the continuous showers in the Rift Valley region.