Multiple Kenya National Rally champion Ian Duncan is among drivers who have been slated for this year’s Rhino Charge, set for June 3 in Laikipia County.
Duncan is expected to feature in the competition alongside his team, KTM Cruisers, and will be angling for a fourth Rhino Charge title, having won it three times in 1998, 2006 and 2007.
Nonetheless, he will have to contend with various other drivers who will also be looking to excel over the obstacles of nature, including defending champion Sean Avery, who will be out for a second successive title.
Avery will be riding in Car No. 38 (Bundufundi).
Other drivers on the roster include Peter Kinyua (Car No 23), Adil Khawaja (Car No 44), Eddy Verbeek (Car No. 1), Ravi Patel of Frying Squad, and John Bowden of Gumtree 4X4 Car 9, among others
The competition was boosted on Wednesday with a financial support of Ksh 15 million from Telco giant Safaricom, which will support the activities of the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust, the organising body for the competition.
Speaking after the unveiling of the sponsorship, Executive Director of the foundation, Christian Lambrechts, said this year’s competition continues a long tradition of their environmental conservation efforts.
“The Rhino Charge is a fun-filled event that has been established to support the conservation activities of the Rhino Ark and that most of the funding goes towards conservation efforts. The Rhino Charge and Rhino Ark have been partnering with many…many institutions over the years to ensure that the competition is run in a very professional manner. As of today, we have 52 partners helping with the organisation of the Rhino Charge event,” Lambrechts said.
He added: “I want to thank Safaricom who have made an amazing pledge to support the Rhino Ark activities as well as Car No. 44. We have been actually working with them and benefitting from their keenness on environmental issues.”
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said the partnership with Rhino Ark is part of its unwavering commitment in leveraging on the power of sports to conserve the environment.
“As a business, we are committed to becoming a net zero-emitting company by 2050. To achieve this, we have several initiatives in place including a plan to plant five million trees across the country by 2025 in partnership with Kenya Forest Service (KFS), which we estimate will offset 26% of our emissions,” Ndegwa said.
Funds collected this year will go towards the conservation of Kakamega Forest.
