Time to rethink as Kenya lose seat in powerful WRC Commission

The Federation Internationale de I' Automobile (FIA) has released names of members who will serve in its various commissions and committees in 2024/25.

The list includes five Kenyans motorsports personalities and experts minus all the directors of the Kenya Motor Sports Federation (KMSF).

Kenya has lost its influential seat in the powerful World Rally Championship Commission previously held by Phineas Kimathi, the former CEO of the WRC Safari Rally since 2019.

This commission, now chaired by Pernilla Solberg, wife of former world rally champion Petter Solberg, has a big say on how the WRC is run and managed and reports back to the World Motor Sport Council (WNSC), the  supreme decision making body in the FIA.

This means Kenya lacks somebody in a decision making position to take care of WRC Safari Rally interests within global motorsport circles.

Carl Tundo, the chairman of the WRC Safari Rally Local Organising Committee (LOC) until last January, has now been appointed as a member in the FIA Road Sport Committee which is chaired by Tiziano Siviero, the 1988-89 WRC Safari Rally winning navigator Miki Biason.

Others appointed are the WRC Safari Rally Event Secretary Stella Macharia who now joins the FIA Volunteers and Officials Commission, rally technical expert John Kamau (Rally Commission) and Peter Wandayi (Historic Motor Sport Committee).

Wandayi is the chairman of the Alfa Romeo Owners' Club which organises the annual Concours d'Elegance car show competition.

The club 's founder Bob Dewar was awarded the 2021 FIA Founding Members Club Heritage Cup for his contribution in organising the Concours for the last 50 years.

Hellen Shiri has been dropped from the Women in Motorsports Commission without a replacement from Kenya.

She was the winner of the 2019 FIA Event Secretary of the Year and served under Tundo as well as being the WRC Safari Rally Event Secretary.

Ugandan Irene Blick is now the only African woman in the WIM Commission that is headed by Turkey’s Burku Cetinkaya.

Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed remains the senior most Kenyan in the FIA hierarchy sitting in the top decision making World Motor Sports Council (WMSC), a position she has been holding since 2021.

These appointments are done independently by the FIA and the WMSC.

Approved

The Presidents and Vice-Presidents of these Committees and Commissions are approved, every second year, by the WMSC on proposal of the President of the FIA (with the exception of the President of the Manufacturers’ Committee who is appointed for four years).

These latest changes leave only two other Kenyans sitting in important international sporting bodies, Athletics Kenya President Jackson Tuwei and his Kenya Table Tennis Association counterpart Andrew Mudibo.

Tuwei is one of the Vice President of World Athletics while Mudibo is a board member of the International Table Tennis Federation and Hon Treasurer of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation

Many countries and individuals fight hard to win and retain seats in these international bodies as the ripple effects are felt in their individual countries and regions as well, especially now when sports is more about business and the global environment. It is indeed a tough call for Kenya.

In another development, the FIA President Ben Sulayem has written a thank you letter to the KMSF President Maina Muturi for Kenya organising a successful WRC Safari Rally and hosting the FIA Vice Chairman from Africa, Rodrigo Rocha, who delivered the FIA messages during the Talanta Hela Rally Academy launch and flag off ceremony of the Safari at the KICC.