The Safari Rally is back on the World Rally Championship calendar

A Facebook post claiming that the Safari Rally has been reinstated to the World Rally Championship after a 17 year absence is TRUE.

According to the post, the rally will take place in 2020, having last been held as part of the WRC in 2002.

The Safari Rally was first held on 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, with stages in Kenya Uganda and Tanzania. The rally was renamed to the East African Safari Rally in 1960, and it has been known as the Safari Rally since 1974 following its inclusion in the World Rally Championship the previous year.

The International Automobile Federation also reinstated rallies in Japan and New Zealand to its calendar, with races in Corsica (France), Catalunya (Spain) and Australia dropped.

In a statement posted on the official website of the Presidency, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the reinstatement of the Safari Rally to the WRC calendar, thanking all those involved in the process, and pledging his government’s support to ensure that the event is hosted successfully.

It is my pleasure today to announce to the people of Kenya and Africa that this process has been concluded and the Safari Rally has been included in the International Automobile Federation World Rally Championship 2020 Calendar, marking the return of the World Rally Championship to Kenya and Africa, after 18 years of waiting — President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Safari Rally had been dropped from the World Rally Championship in 2002, and was held as the African Rally Championship.

PesaCheck has looked into the claim that Safari Rally race is back in Kenya and finds it to be TRUE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Researcher (Name of researcher), was edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Ann Ngengere and was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.