Three young Kenyans are about to do something no Kenyan has ever done before — compete at a Pan African Karting Championship. And this isn’t just another regional tournament buried in the sports pages. This is the first edition of what promises to become the defining grassroots motorsport competition on the African continent, and Kenya showed up.
The Motorsports Kenya Federation has named Sean Njumbi, Jesse Murithii, and Myles Angoya Imbayi as the country’s representatives at the inaugural Pan African Karting Championship, set to roar to life at the Santos Pêras Karting Circuit in Benguela Province, Angola, on October 10 and 11. Njumbi will compete in the Junior Rotax category, while Murithii and Imbayi will go head-to-head with the continent’s sharpest talent in the Senior Max division. Over 40 elite drivers from 15 African nations will be on that circuit. Kenya’s three will be among them.
This matters more than the podium positions.
The championship, which organisers have confirmed will rotate across the continent going forward, is not simply a race weekend — it is a deliberate, structural attempt to build a karting ecosystem across Africa from the ground up. Behind the scenes, Karting Africa, founded by Wesleigh Orr of WORR Motorsport, has been quietly assembling a continental framework that brings together National Sporting Authorities, coaches, parents, and FIA affiliates to standardise driver training and technical development. The Benguela event will include parent orientations, media training for young drivers, and high-level stakeholder sessions. The 2027 Karting Africa Calendar will be officially unveiled at a welcome dinner in Luanda on October 6, before teams charter to Benguela for scrutineering and free practice on October 7.
Kenya’s delegation didn’t arrive at this moment by accident. Norris Ongalo, Head of Delegation and Event Director of the WRC Safari Rally, secured flight tickets to Angola through Kenya Airways — a donation facilitated by WRC Safari Rally Kenya CEO Carl Tundo. ASN FIA Representative Maina Muturi provided the team with Kenyan-branded kits. The institutional weight behind this squad signals that Kenya’s motorsport establishment understands what is at stake. “We are committed to leaving no country behind,” Ongalo said, framing Kenya’s participation not as a one-off but as a long-term continental commitment.
Muturi was even more direct about the regional ambition. “The future of motorsport lies entirely in youth development,” he said, adding that the FIA’s goal is to transform this into a regional championship that actively draws in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. South Africa currently leads the continent in karting infrastructure, but the explicit aim of this project is to close that gap — and Kenya, by showing up first, is positioning itself as a regional anchor.
Sean Njumbi, Jesse Murithii, and Myles Angoya Imbayi are not just racing in Angola. They are carrying the weight of what Kenyan motorsport could become — and the continent is watching.
