NAIROBI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Safari Rally will help restore road safety in local roads as it prepares to return to the World Rally Championships (WRC) calendar in July.
Jean Todt, president of the Federation of International Automobile Association (FIA), asked drivers to be careful and observe road safety.
"FIA welcomes Kenya and reminds Kenya citizens that we have a campaign to reduce the number of accidents on the roads. By returning Safari rally to the WRC, it will enable us to work on road safety in Kenya and work hard to reduce road accidents and we want to increase this awareness during the Safari Rally," said Todt.
Between 3000 and 13,000 Kenyans lose their lives in road traffic crashes every year.
The Safari was dropped from the WRC Calendar in 2002 October due to lack of requisite government guarantees the global body had demanded following the 2002 debacle
Rally Monte-Carlo will open the season, as is tradition.
Safari Rally is one of the three new rounds that have been included in the WRC series along with Rally New-Zealand and the season-closing Rally of Japan, all returning to the rally-sport summit.
"In order to further globalize the championship, we needed to have more WRC rounds outside Europe. I am glad to see the results of our expansion strategy, with emblematic events such as Kenya and Japan coming back to the WRC calendar next year, alongside New Zealand replacing Australia, while long-standing, iconic European events provide a great balance and preserve the DNA of the sport," FIA Rally director Yves Matton.
