Despite Nairobi's exclusion from the itinerary of next year's Safari Rally, the capital city could yet host future editions of World Rally Championships (WRC) prestigious event.
WRC Safari Rally CEO Charles Gacheru says Nairobi is one of the regions they will explore for future competitions as are Nanyuki, Western Kenya and at the coast.
"Nairobi is obviously ideal, but then we'd have to look in and around Nairobi and ask, 'do we have closed places where we can run around and get 300 or 250km of competitive distance?' You'd have to probably go down into Machakos, into Lukenya, into those areas where they have those big farms," Gacheru said.
Next year's Safari Rally is set to be held entirely in Naivasha, beginning March 12-15, with Nairobi missing out -- unlike previous editions when it has hosted the super special stage at Kasarani and the ceremonial flagoff at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC).
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Speaking via a phone interview on Capital FM's Saturday Music and Sports Show, Gacheru explained that the exclusion was necessitated by new FIA regulations that restricted the rally to four days.
This means that the shakedown will be undertaken on Thursday morning in Nawisa, Naivasha, with the competition revving off soon after.
In shifting subsequent editions of the Safari Rally from Naivasha to other regions, Gacheru says there are critical factors they will have to consider, including availability of closed lands and adequate hotel facilities.
"You need big farms where you can run around and find 30 kilometers within a closed section because we're not allowed to run on open roads because of the speed of these cars and the safety element. Safety is such a big element for WRC," he explained.
Gacheru added: "Mombasa is probably best placed. You have a lot of good areas to run around, big farms. It is very appealing because not only do you have closed places, but you also have a big hotel capacity...international airport, and so on and so forth."
Nanyuki is another appealing option albeit Gacheru believes the lack of enough hotels could work against the town.
"A place like Nanyuki is so ideal for the rally. They have such open land, but then we have to ask 'do we have enough hotels to actually accommodate the teams, the
spectators and the officials?' We have over 2,000 officials ourselves as a Safari Rally. All those guys sleep in hotels," he said.
Gacheru added: "The teams come with hundreds of people as well as the TV crews. then you've got your 50,000...60,000 spectators coming."
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The CEO further revealed ongoing negotiations with the WRC promoter to sign a new contract for the Safari Rally beyond 2026.
A lawyer has already been engaged to spearhead the discussions on the same.
