Lisa Christoffersen, better known for her two-year appearance in the international TV reality show Real Housewives of Nairobi on Showmax is a lucky lady with an extraordinary story she wants to share with cancer victims during the 2025 WRC Safari Rally.
Christoffersen is going beyond gunning for the finisher’s badge in the Safari, she is organising and intending to compete in the first ever motorsport event in Turkana later this year.
Lisa Christoffersen, entrepreneur, motorsports enthusiast and Realty Show star during an interview with Business Daily on February 2, 2023, at Lifestyle Nairobi. PHOTO | SINDA MATIKO | NMG
She is the girl about town. Nicknamed 'Manzi Mlami wa' Ford Raptor (the White girl with a Ford Raptor).
“I have competed in the last three editions of the WRC Safari Rally as part of the Talanta Women Team, and in each edition I reflect and thank God,” Christoffersen told the CEO of the Music Copyright Board of Kenya Ezekiel Mutua during the meeting to sell her WRC Safari Rally participation story and crowdfunding for her participation this year that is rooted on the cancer message.
“They gave me 10 days to live, some 19 years ago when doctors discovered that I had stage four cancer of the stomach” says Christoffersen.
“But I told the doctor at a clinic in South Africa a big no. I am busy, and I had things to do, places to go, raise children. “Thank you. I also have rallies to do.” These 19 years have reawakened me. Today I am cancer free. Yeah! I'm here today better and stronger.
Talanta Hela Ladies Rally Team driver Lisa Christoffersen (left), her navigator Chao Mtwanguo (right) and Galana Energies Head of Operations Sandra Oluoch during the sponsorship launch in Nairobi on March 26, 2024.
Photo credit: Pool
“You can beat everything with your mind. So, "Drive for change” is my motto. I want to remember our first meeting at that hotel and met that Doctor who told us he has a hospital, and he said they have a cancer unit,” said Christoffersen, who will be navigated by Christobel Wachuka, a civil construction projects manager. They will drive a Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
“I want to take one young girl who's got cancer, and I want to nurture her. I want to empower her. I want to be her mentor and see her through.”
Mutua, renowned for his role in instilling discipline as public moral policeman during his days as the CEO of the Kenya Film Classification Board, agreed creative artists like Christoffersen have a story to share with the world and exploit the creative digital space especially through the Safari Rally.
Christoffersen laughs a lot, talks even more and becomes passionate about motorsport, earning the street name of “Makena”, or the jovial one in Kikuyu language.
But this time she is not laughing as she struggles to raise funds to compete in the Safari since the Talanta Women Team which has been receiving financial assistance from the Sports Ministry and WRC Promoter in the past crumbled after the departure of former Sports CS Ababu Namwamba.
In 2024 our car had fuel starvation and we failed to do the last leg -- Hells gate. However, we managed to get the car back to the finish.
Lisa Christoffersen stands beside her Subaru Impreza N10 at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi before the start of last year’s WRC Safari Rally.
Photo credit: Pool
“Looks like we are on our own and many doors have been shut by prospective sponsors. But we have not given up. I have started cloud funding. We are the real hustlers team,” said Chrisoffersen.
The founder of Africa’s first ever all-women Safari Rally team – the Lioness Rally with many cubs like the youngest driver in the Safari, Tinashe Gatimu, 20 and former Sports ministry Director of Communication Pauline Sheghu and Jennifer Malik, loves 4x4 challenges in her Range Rover and Mobius.
Currently she is turning heads in her eye-catching SUV Ford Raptor. How was her first Safari Rally experience in 2022.
“The excitement and adrenaline of the inaugural Lioness Rally was truly electrifying, especially considering the unique nature of the event and the absence of any rehearsal. Making the historic moment a reality was overwhelming,” she recalls.
