Tough times for the toughest. (Kenya Safari Rally).(World Rally Championship event may be discontinued)

The Kenya Safari Rally, acknowledged as the toughest and most exciting event in the World Rally Championships, could be facing the chop. Organisers have been making ominous sounds about safety and funding - but as John Kamau reports, there may be other, less obvious motives to kill the greatest rally of them all.

It's called "the toughest and most exciting event of the World Rally Championship, the car racing series that challenges drivers with every imaginable condition across 14 nations and four continents. But the sole African race in the series - Kenya's Safari Rally - could be dumped because of financial and safety disputes. There are only two reasons ordinary Kenyans will line up along dusty village roads: when the President, Daniel arap Moi happens to be passing their way in his motorcade, and when they are watching rally cars roar past.

Of all 14 rounds of the World Rally Championship (WRC), Kenya's Safari Rally is the most exotic - a fact that WRC officials and top rally drivers readily admit. "It is a unique event with so many…