 What's up everybody? Welcome to SPM Buzz. My good name is Miski Finchi, and today I am hanging out with a star in her own way. I'm going to be introducing her in just a few minutes, but make sure you subscribe guys. Tafadali usi wathe bilako subscribe, okay? All right, now today I am at the WRC Safari Rally Offices, and I have come to speak to the Communication Officer, and we are here to see how the preparations are going on, and just to hear, do we guys have enough to party in Naivasha because I know you guys are really interested to know about that. Hi, Sophie. Hi, how are you? Good, thank you. Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do, what is your role on the WRC Safari Rally. Okay, my name is Sophie Kenoti. I'm the Communications Officer here. So the preparations are going on well, and we are calling on the masses and the spectators to come down to Hurupak for the flag off, and to come down to Naivasha for the real rally now. When are we flagging off? We are flagging off on Thursday at Hurupak. As you recall last year it was at KCC, but now you're located to Hurupak because it's a very spectacular area for all the spectators. So the dates are 22nd to 25th? We're actually starting the rally on 21st to 25th because on 21st there'll be shakedown, and then that will be on Wednesday in Naivasha. There's usually the shakedown testing. What's a shakedown? Shakedown is testing. Yes, so a sort of WRC testing. So on 22nd we do the flag off at Hurupak. Though we have a clock of course, a clock of course is a HOD in a WRC department that deals with that, with the routes and everything. So just to give overview of what will happen, so Wednesday is shakedown, Thursday we flag off, Friday we go down to Vasha for the stages. Yes. Amazing. So guys we have the dates. In case you're planning to go down to Naivasha, you now know what dates that you should be planning and also the flag off. It's such an amazing thing because we get to see who is on the competition and who do we actually have there, especially our local drivers? We have very many local drivers. I don't know if you have an idea of the rallysters program that is under Safari Rally Kenya. I mean, is Jeremy Wahome part of it? Yes, Jeremy Wahome is part of it. We have Makreki Mati and we also have Hamza Anwar. We also have very many Kenyan drivers. Karan Patel, Ivanskavisi, we have Nikil Sachanya, we have the Lexov Kaltundo and others because the entries are open and now we are waiting for the local drivers to jump in and we expect to have about 45 to 50 entries combined both international and local. But it's good we also look out for people because we are celebrating 70 years and so our people need to, they need to make us proud. So let's look out for the Kenyan drivers. Do we have more women in there? Amolo is for the women. Do we have more women there? Yes, we have women. The only person that I can confirm right now is Pauline Shegu that I know of. The entries are coming. So we'll keep you posted once the entries are done. So we are going to get back to the WRC. Let me just talk about your role because someone is seeing you, you're looking very young, you have all this role as a communication officer. Is there any challenge that you probably feel that you are facing as you are starting off and how are you able just to go about it? Okay, wow, that's a tough one. As a woman, I don't know. Okay, young is relative. But having gotten a job at 20, I've been able to maneuver anything that I came across because I'm a journalist by profession and so having worked at the age of 20 going downwards, I think I've interacted with people and I've been able to overcome the challenges. Of course there are many challenges working with men. Number two, people think that you're young and that you're in the experience at times. Number three, moving from because a citizen was a business reporter now moving to sports and being a communications officer in such an international office isn't an easy task. It's not a work in the park. But you just wear your brief face and do what you have to do. Has sports been your thing since Inoki Tambo? For some reason, well in high school, a little bit yes. Well at citizen, I interacted with the sports journalist and I can say yes, not really but I'm a motor sport fan and so I think that's why I was able to walk that journey easily. It wasn't as hard because I was just transitioning from now being a business journalist to a sports sort of a sports journalist. Yeah, but I was able to learn quick. We have very supportive staff. My colleagues are very supportive because we are from different fields. Others are cheerio scientists. We have people from hospitality sector. We have different people. Yeah, so we've been able to integrate and work together. That is so nice. So let's talk about something that you guys are doing differently here because it's your it's the anniversary. Tell us about that. Now the best thing is there's something we are planning for the 70th anniversary but this one we are going all in. Yes because last year we had a bit of challenge because one it was an electioneering year but this year we expect to be better. Of course we are calling about out our fans, spectators to come and watch the rallies and as we also now celebrate the journey because now having you know rallies older than Kenya right rally celebrating 70 years it's not a main thing. Yeah, so matters safety, the safety officer Noris Ongalo has worked on that. The routes are good accommodation. I don't know if you spectators have really booked accommodation because it's usually fully packed and we expect our economy to grow because last day thrived and we injected a lot of money indirectly and directly to the economy because we have international guests coming in. So this year being a very easy year and because now the government has made plans and has really supported us we expect people to enjoy to have fun as we celebrate the 70 years. I read somewhere that it costs more than 250 million to actually achieve this. Is that true? What do you mean by 250 million? I mean I saw that is how much it costs to organize the whole thing. I'm not in a position to delve into that matter. Now also you know guys are looking forward to the sherehe to the after party and I know it's something really people are looking forward to you know after the competition or the rally rather what are we expecting? Do we have any international artists coming through last year? We had Taras Riley who are we expecting this year? No I can't reveal that for now but get ready we are expecting some good people some good artists from Kenya and also maybe East Africa globally. I can't really reveal that information but for sure there'll be a WRC after party. Yes we have to celebrate 70 years come on. 70 years is not a main thing. Yeah it's a big deal and that's why you're calling people to come all out and support us. Because sure our parents enjoyed this rally when it was traversing in different counties Eldoret, Meru, Nanyuki, Laikipia, Isiolo. So you could hear people talk about it especially our parents. And so since we got the rally back because we lost it in 2002 we got it back and hosted the first one in 2021. So we expect everything to go on well as we celebrate the 70 years and so Sherehe Lazima. Lazima. Lazima toika Nyage. Yes Sherehe people you guys have had. Get ready your outfits you know your excitement. Just get ready and book your accommodation because Lazima Ejaye mape maasana. Kabisa you know Lazima to revive the anniversary kuru city economy and as well as Nairobi. As you all know covidili to Tandika vibhaya sana and actually everyone went down but now it's time now we revive our economy. Yeah so that we can now we can see how best our economy can thrive because it's hurt everyone globally but we expect the best because these are international events and we're expecting many people to come to Kenya because after the rally then what next? We have very many places that the tourists can visit in Kenya. Okay sounds good. Is there any additional information you know you'd like to tell you know the rally fans the rally supporters that we probably would like to know? Actually there's nothing just check our social media pages because we have uh we usually have the spectator guides. I don't know if people note that there are some places that are usually meant for the spectators because they're not supposed to just go anywhere. We value safety safety comes number one and so we are just asking the spectators check our social media pages for the itinerary and for all the details matters safari. Yeah but now safari will be here from 21st to 25th. Yeah so I'm asking on you know behalf of someone who's just watching and is thinking uh do we have to pay to enter is there a place that you know if I need VIP treatment I can pay for tell them please. You see um rally is a monanchi thing it's a monanchi spot you don't really need to pay anything it's absolutely free come to Hurupak the flag of the president our president uh is Excellency William Brute will be there our CS our PS and other officials from the ministry will be there. Yeah so and we're happy that we have support from them and our CEO Mr Fineski Matthew will be there along with the other HODs here at safari and other staff so we expect them to come it's absolutely free but Naivasha as well we have different spectator areas just check our social media pages on Instagram take talk Facebook Twitter we have all the information there so don't shy away the rally is free. Yes so in case you need to check on what spectator area that you want to be check on their social media platforms. All right sofi thank you so much for talking to us and giving us a minute. I mean I see you're busy you're heading to another meeting but thank you so much. You're welcome baby and thank you for coming. Yeah asante sana guys that was a sofi kinoti who is the communication officer right here at the WRC safari rally Kenya and we can't wait to see you in Naivasha you know SPM buzz is going to be there make sure you support us and you talk to us as always. Thank you so much for watching buzz with stars my good name is miss kithingi until next time keep it SPM buzz