 Cabinet Secretary Wano Gwababuna Muamba and now me to recognize also the presence of my SA Mr. Ivan Sachoki, our new chief in the block, CEO Mr. Maena Moturi, sorry, on a chance, we know Moturi and Gashiru are almost the same height, there already difference is complexion, so, let me also recognize the members of the fourth estate, the CEO sports fund, also present here Jim Kaogura, movie and team, the FII team, and the members also from my department present here, Bonaetian Karibusana, and your colleague from NYS, good afternoon, good afternoon once again. I think, as usual, when we are having this kind of meeting with you, like I usually say in my office, like preparing some bits and pieces of information for me to go through, commonly known as a speech, and whenever you stand to speak about events in this ministry with you, I sometimes wonder how you have the graft of this ministry, youth affairs, sports, the government itself, and then again, when we are discussing things granular, like WRC, the kind of information, in fact sometimes I wonder whether you should be the one inducting the CEO for this particular secretary. And I'm saying this because, I joined last year when we were commissioned, I think we had commissioned the WRC itself, and I can see somebody laughing there. We had lots of problems, but you are the one who inducted me into what was happening at that particular moment. So for me today, I want a repeat of the same, basically yourself to undertake an induction of those of us who have come in afresh, like the CEO, and also remind those who have been around what we have been up to as a government in terms of improving the management of the WRC, and at the same time, how we are going to manage it differently this year. We had a very successful sporting event last year. We can all confirm. So for the ladies that I've seen here, participated and lead us proud, including Kulin Sheko here, you made this country proud. You made the ministry proud because you competed despite all the odds and you managed to get, to link the finish line. And for those who are coming from an area where we have a lot of athletes, it doesn't matter whether you are the first, the second or the third, but I think what is very key, especially in Marathon, is hitting the finish line. Right? So what is this event all about? One is that we've decided to reorganize the management of WRC this time afresh. We realized at the gazetan that our zero gazetan only included the steering committee and the secretariat. We don't have the LOCs, we don't have everything else because we realized we can bring ourselves together and manage this thing without having all the protocols that we have in the past. We become lean but manage effectively. What we are saying is that we want this thing to be the best effort that has been had. Why? Because the discussions they see us and of course the head of state have had with FIA this event for the first time is coming back to their own visitor quality. And that is a milestone that we pride ourselves as a government, we pride ourselves as a ministry to have achieved. And I want to thank those of you who worked with us together particularly the taking about team that has been put in by the FIA and the rally drivers themselves for having worked with us to ensure that this event is moved to the traditional April Pasaka holidays. So when we look at the management that we've put in place we will only be having a very lean secretariat also. We don't want to crowd this event. The reason is the timeframe is short and we have everybody checking to see that this thing succeeds. The secretariat that we are unveiling today has also been given their roles and responsibilities which I am not going to spell again although it is in my speech this is something that we are continuously having discussions on. Before I call the CS Tokaman address us I want to speak to three issues here. The first one is that I am happy with my technical team that has been handling the WRC prior to the unveiling and the let's call it the unveiling of the secretariat itself. You've done a very good job. We all understand where we came from and I think given the milestones that we've been able to achieve we are doing very well. So what am I saying? Those that are being unveiled today as a secretariat you are getting into a space that already is a team that will induct you there is a team that will work with you together and hence you will not have a problem just plugging in. The other one is the other issue I wanted to speak to is what our CEO and unit the issue of traffic scenarios everybody is asking about what the ministry has been able to do and the reason and I recognize you and everybody else the reason you are here is for us to be able to give you a worked out plan of action and that is why you have people from the ministry of transport so that you can be able to work together with the administration here to see how before the event we will have sent out information on the routes that motorists should not use on that specific day and I think this has been done by the team that went for the record and you will be given that information this time round we are zeroing in on what we want the fun experience and basically what we are saying about the fun experience is that we want fans and everybody else not to untangle themselves into this commonly known as traffic scenarios because a team that plans is a team that will be able to foresee that given the numbers that will be there during those 3 or 4 days we need to have done something prior to that then hence the reason we are here so it is expected that when you finish this meeting the teams will organize themselves in a manner that then they will speak to traffic scenarios and how we ensure that we don't have the management of security in specific areas so that we can give the funds the experience that they want the villages that we are able to set up to the effect that then everyone that will be there will have some funds you have your kids you have everybody else being Easter and every individual in that place the CEO will be speaking more to that later on in other forum but that is what the government has been able to do so in other words what am I saying that this is one of the best organized safari handis despite the short period of time because we brought together the experts prior to unveiling the secretariat and I want to thank you for two things one is your foresight in managing their affairs of business it is your decision it is because of the decision that you made that we are here today it is because you saw that we would have problems if we don't meet together like this and discuss specifics and hence the team so because I don't in the interest of time allow me at this particular moment you know how we usually welcome Waziri before it gives us his keynote address Waziri Kariko today is a very special day we are officially starting the road to Vasha 2024 starting today we start at the Liberate countdown and it is exactly 27 days in exactly 27 days we will all be in Laudia for the checkdown on the 27th of our March and that same day 27th when we do checkdown we have also scheduled to officially unveil the Kenya School of Rally our Rally Academy and therefore the first official day of this year's rally is being curated to coincide with one of the key legacy projects of this ministry and a legacy project that is very dear to his excellence is present with Ambuto our Rally Academy you will recall that his excellence in the president officially announced this project of the Rally School on June 9 as we launched the Talantahela initiative at Steadhouse Talantahela and these rally school are the only government program that have been launched by the president from Steadhouse so they are very special initiatives and in 28 we flag off exactly 28 days from today we flag off at KICC and head to the triple S extravaganza of the super special stage at KICC which is a special stage not just for the rally drivers because it's a competitive stage but it is also a stage for the public to have a test of the safari rally at Kasarang 29 we are in Kedang 30 we conclude at Hellsket where we also do the prize giving and so today is when we officially start the critical countdown and as has become our tradition when we are doing countdown it is hands on deck one for all all for one deploying our experience, our energies our expertise to deliver a world class event and good people that is the reason why we are gathered this morning here to start the countdown together and be assured that from now on our focus is on this event and that is why I want to thank each one of you and especially my colleagues in the ministry engineer Peter Tu who is not just a colleague but also a friend because we you cannot really work well together if you have not built synergy a level of friendship and mutual respect with those people you work with infact I want to advise you as a team to pick some lessons from the way you are cabinet secretary and your principal secretary work we work as a team we consult we make decisions together we respect one another don't be cheated it's not that we don't hold different opinions on things no we do we do sometimes you actually hold the emergent opinions on issues and that is as it should be because working together does not mean you think alike it's not possible for two human beings to think uniform and think alike on everything but what it means is that even when you hold different opinions or different positions of the matter you can still build common ground for common good and so this morning as we start countdown I want you to borrow the same leaf from our team our team at the ministry and our team at the ministry is led by myself and the PS our team at the ministry also values the spirit of inclusivity making sure that everybody feels a part of the team and a part of the process you know the PS and me could just sit in our office and we decide even if it doesn't happen and we will just direct it from where we are sitting and we will actually deliver this event but it wouldn't be inclusive and it wouldn't deploy the full set the full skill set that all of you bring to this event this incredible event and so I want we need to applaud our team PS together with our team our secretary administration Choki our fund CEO and you know that the fund is a critical partner in this process because they provide the financial support to make this event possible our staff and we have our staff here who are part of this process we have sent a number of our staff to provide backup to the project the team in finance in accounts and procurement and we have a good team to provide backup that whole team is working in unison to ensure that we deliver a successful successful event as you have seen we are also projecting the whole of government approach to this event by making sure that the relevant arms of government are involved and so the long and short this event is for us to start the journey together for us to start the countdown and the road to Varsha together this year's event is characterized by a number of key changes that we have made to the rally and these are changes which I want to amplify but before I do that I want to congratulate each one of you for not only getting the opportunity to serve this important event it's a legacy event for this country but also for accepting the responsibility to serve so each of us who have been named to the what we are calling the world rally championship safari rally project oversight team I want to thank you for accepting that responsibility the project oversight team is going to be the overall organ overseeing this project it is a very lean team when I came to this ministry I found a steering committee of 39 and a local organizing committee of about 29 so before you went to the secretariat and the technical teams you had two heavy landing committees this year's event has a project oversight team of about 7 people down from 39 steering committee and it has no local organizing committee because we want to keep it lean and efficient and I have no doubt that the smaller team we have put together is going to deliver this event without a drama without Poland push and tough little tough wars that just end up crowding an event then undermining the effective delivery of the event the secretariat has also been trained considerably and we expect this trained secretariat to deliver when it is amended and so those of you who will be serving on the project oversight team Hongera that team will be led directly by myself and the peers will be leading that project oversight team a small mean efficient team to oversight this project then we have a new secretariat and we organize secretariat and a new leadership of Mrs. Charles to share here this young man is an Eastlander he was born and bred in Shawrimoyo so all the good, bad and ugly of Eastlands you can expect to see them in Charles but he brings mostly the good more often than not he brings the good so Charles allow me to congratulate you on your new responsibility as the CEO of this important project we have gazetted you as the new CEO of this project because we have failed in you of the experience and expertise you bring and together with the rest of the team that you will be working with we want to wish you well because today we now formally unveil you and your team to now manage the project publicly and you have seen from the gazet notice which I published a couple of weeks ago we have handed you a very robust mandate as the secretariat and in the absence of a local organizing committee you have a very solid mandate, a very solid responsibility to deliver this project without any side shows and the last thing we want to see are side shows we have no time or space for side shows we want to see an event delivered I also want to acknowledge the Kenya Motorsport Federation which this year also has a new leader in Mr. Maina Motore and Maina is a rally man through and through and Maina knows I worked with him when I was many years ago in the coalition government he knows exactly what my expectation is and he knows that if his leadership but Kenya itself succeeds it will help us achieve one critical agenda this government has a strong Kenyan flavor in the safari rally which is lucky at the moment because we don't have Kenyans competing at the elite level overall event sounds ridiculous but and we want Kenya self through the KMRC to do that through the ARC really to raise the bar in preparing Kenyan drivers to compete at the highest level of the safari rally and I keep on insisting that the safari rally must go back to the days when Kenyans will be excited about the Joginda scenes the Shafakamletas the big president juniors the Pancreta Jivush we must go to a point where we have Kenyan drivers driving at the top tier of the safari rally so Maina Motore your work is cut out and this government is fully supportive and to help you with that journey to a rally school to help more talk to Kenyan talents for the future we wish you well my man together with your team and talking about Kenyan talents let me also acknowledge this young man Karan Patal Karan is the reigning Afrika Rally champion you see there might be people here who might have a gender with you so it's good they see you in fullness now this young man is a very young man you're 29 is it 21 now this young man was the Motosport personality of the year in 2022 now he's an Afrika Rally champion champion right now I have so much faith in this young man as we go into the safari rally especially especially rally talent so good people really that is what we want to see happen we want to see a rally that reflects the very best of Kenya and a rally that is delivered efficiently and cost effectively we have succeeded to cut the budget for this rally very very significantly we cut the budget a billion last year we have reduced the budget further and it is all because we wanted to see value for money every shielding that goes into this event must really reflect value for money everybody is tightening their belts across the country and we have to do the same we have to tighten our belt and stretch the shielding now as I had said earlier there are a few changes actually significant changes not a few number one we have moved the flag of point or the start of point we have moved this rally from Huwupau to KCC so KCC which again as you recall used to be the iconic start point for the rally we are going back to KCC number two we have returned the rally from June to Easter it always seemed a bit misplaced to run the safari rally in June the safari rally was always a minister event and I want to commend the promoter Simon Larkin together with his team and the FIA we had very very good discussions to change the timing of the rally I had to travel all the way to Greece to seal this deal and I also want to commend the president because the president assisted us to make that push to get this rally back to Israel and so while last year we were celebrating the 70th anniversary of the safari rally this year it is Easter the rally Easter the rally and we expect to really have a special atmosphere for the safari number three we have changed the prize giving ceremony or the closing ceremony from the KWS service park that place is called the service park so we have moved the closing ceremony from the service park to Hell's Gate and you good people who have run this rally before, go over here and call last year I couldn't understand why you finished the rally at Hell's Gate without a doubt the most picturesque the most beautiful the best natural setting for the conclusion of this rally and then you come back to the service park for perhaps the most watched part of the rally which is the closing ceremony and so we made a decision as we sat there watching you run Hiltaskelter first of all moving from Hell's Gate to the service park at Hell's Gate it is a logistical nightmare it has a lot of challenges with traffic management of circulation of the people then you just break the atmosphere you see at Hell's Gate the adrenaline of the conclusion of the rally the excitement of the public peaks at Hell's Gate then you just drop it moving to to the service park so you didn't advise us on this that we saw sitting there we saw and we just felt well these guys are supposed to be advising us on this one we will advise them so we decided to advise you that we move the closing ceremony for service park to Hell's Gate that is a significant change we have discussed it with the promoter and we have agreed at Hell's Gate is that Hell's Gate is really a perfect setting for this kind of ceremony number 3, number 4 as I have already mentioned we are accompanying this rally with the takeoff of our rally school and so we have requested the promoter we are still in discussion of the promoter on the logistics to get some of the elite drivers of the rally to join us for a special ceremony to flag off the rally school at Kasaranya after Shetdown and Laudia so that after Shetdown we should all be gathered for a special ceremony to flag off the rally school I keep on mentioning the Israeli school because it's a legacy project and this is what we will get Kenya back to the high table of rally many of you are officials of this rally but you never go to our junior event you don't go to those wrestlers at the Whisperin Moran Whislin Moran not Whisperin we call Whislin Moran this place what is it called? Whislin Moran yes, I have not seen many of you at the Whislin Moran I go to the Whislin Moran to watch 5 year olds drive cuts 5 year olds or Machakos to watch 10 11 year olds drive bagis the other day I was watching I am 18 year old I was testing his new his new Subaru he is just transition from the bagi to his first car go ahead that is go ahead yes go ahead you are just transition from the bagi to the car that excites me when I see them transiting from the car to the bagi to the car good people that's the future of Kenyan rally and we want now to consolidate that ecosystem under a school of rally to develop this talent in a very deliberate way I am obsessed with that project because I know that's the future of Kenyan rally the president is fully sold to that project I was talking to Carl Rovan Parra last year the young man who is running at the top of the camp and he was telling me he started the journey of rally at the age of 5 at the age of 5 many of you believe your children should not get anywhere near their stereo mail this young man has been comfortable around the stereo mail from age 5 by age 2021 he was on top of the world then you expect a Kenyan who has a fast experience with a car at the age of 21 to compete with this young man who has been behind the stereo mail from the age of 5 it will just not happen it is the same thing with football you want to be like Kodi Voa why doesn't Kenya perform like Morocco and then you forget that these people have a pipeline so you expect a player you have stumbled on at the age of 18 to start competing with someone who has been kicking around a ball in an academy from the age of 3 it will not happen it won't happen that is why talenta hella is a big thing for us and this rally school is going to be operating under the talenta hella brand 5 we have also brought them the best of inclusivity as I have said inclusivity is important for us and inclusivity is number 1 we want the rally stars project to be enhanced Safi Nigel as your club informed that the rally stars cars are not ready yet you think I don't know I know more than you may imagine and so there is a chance that Jeremy Mahome Hamza Anwar, Gati Mondiza young people that we want to see because for me the rally stars are the pioneers for this whole pipeline we are establishing with the rally school I have just whispered to Maidam Turi and the CEO working with yourself that the rally stars are ready it is unthinkable and it is unacceptable that these rally stars will not rest when we don't decide that's just an encouragement that the rally stars are ready because having those young stars participate is important for us having our women crews our women teams the talenta hella women teams participate is important for us it's important for inclusivity and I hope Pauline and the team you guys are getting ready yes the women team our inclusivity is also going into strengthening partnerships and we will be broadening the base of partners that we are working with for this rally number 6 the higher viewership we want to see bigger economic spin-offs as you know we have introduced the whole Haslapazar experience a place where our traders can come to make some money pay some fukoni in the spirit of our bottom up economic empowerment agenda so the Haslapazar this year is going to be integrated in the rally ecosystem so that our people can make money we will be elevating the sports tourism agenda and we will also be using this event to highlight other upcoming sporting events this is an olympics year so as we do Vasha we will also be promoting Timkanya as they prepare to go to Paris for the Olympics 2024 this year we are also ramping up our preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations 2027 we will also be highlighting Kenya as a destination for AFKOM 27 so this event is also giving other platform to bring the spotlight on other activities that are coming up let me conclude by thanking our concrete partners who have come on board to support us I want to support to upload KCB Kenya commercial bank who remain our top partners our top corporate partners at Sentinel KCB I want to thank Sifao Motos Fomali Teweta who are not only supporting the rally but have also committed to be our key partners for the rally school and have already donated a couple of cars have already donated a couple of cars for the rally school and they will be working with us the journey of the rally school so thank KQ Kenya Airways Kenya Airways is our official career and will continue to be our official career let us support KQ let us continue flying Kenya Airways Kenya Airways is our ambassador extra ordinary in the skies Safarekom Safarekom continues to be Listas and this year again they will be supporting the rally school we thank Safarekom for that Vivo Energy Vivo Energy working together with Shell who have offered to provide all lubricants and fuels needed by the rally school so Vivo Energy will be the official lubricant and fuels partner for our school of rally which is a big big contribution to our rally because the school will be consuming a lot of lubricants and fuels so we thank you Vivo together with Shell and Vivo have also stepped forward to sponsor Pauline Steep for we are talking to them to extend that generosity to the entire women all the women crews they are sponsoring two teams already so your team and your team is team where is the lady oh she is in school so herself and Pauline already are under that umbrella of Vivo Energy I want to encourage East African Brawamis Limited to come on board Varsha is not Varsha without the things you people so please come on board I want to invite Coca-Cola to come on board Charles I hope you have opened the channels of communication with EABL and Coca-Cola and other companies come on board the icons are incredible you are guaranteed absolutely fantastic marketing with the partnership we offer to the rally so today count this we have a special unveiling of our new team both the secretariat and the project oversight team your appointment letters will be are ready and will be handed to you by the CEO who is your team leader your CEO Mr. Kashere is your team leader and he will be handing you your letters of appointment for those who will be holding various responsibilities please let us go forth and deliver an incredible world class event something that will continue to make our country proud officially the road to Varsha is ignited let's go