The Golden Age of Ugandan Motorsport When Petrol Was Cheaper Than Water
Narrated by Hajji Omar Mayanja
Ah, the good old days! The golden age. The time when things were simpler, fuel prices didn’t give you heart palpitations, and you didn’t have to read a 20-page manual just to figure out which pronouns to use while writing a story like this one. Back then, life was good, motorsport was king, and rally cars were actual beasts, not computers on wheels with turbo whistles that sound like dying goats.
Ask any Ugandan rally fan about the best years of our sport, and before you even finish your sentence, they’ll scream, “The late 90s!” And if you dare suggest another era, they’ll look at you like you just insulted their grandmother. Between 1998 and 2001, Uganda was not just a motorsport haven it was the Las Vegas of rallying. The only other African country that came close was Kenya, and that was because they had a round of the World Rally Championship . But here in Uganda? We had the real show. The kind of cars you’d see on TV, but instead of just watching them, you could find them parked at a fuel station in Ntinda, with some dude wiping the dust off the headlights like it was his newborn child.
Karim Hirji was the man who kickstarted this golden age. He was the first Ugandan to bring in a proper Group A Toyota Celica GT4 ST185 in the mid-90s. Not to be outdone, Emmanuel Katto followed suit with a Celica GT4 ST165, only to upgrade faster than a Ugandan switching lanes without indicating. By the time Katto got himself an ST185, Charles Muhangi had already raised the bar with a Group A Subaru Impreza 555. These weren’t just rally cars they were straight-up exorcists on wheels, previously driven by world champions like Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae, Juha Kankkunen, and Didier Auriol.
The Toyota Celica ST185 4WD Turbo brought in by Karim Hirji in the mid 90’s
For the younger fans out there, imagine seeing a car driven by Sébastien Ogier or Kalle Rovanperä casually being washed in Ndebba. That’s how real it was. And then came 1999, the year Charles Muhangi made history by becoming the first and still the only Ugandan to win the FIA African Rally Championship, piloting his Subaru Impreza 555 like a man who had just found out fuel was free for winners.
Charles Muhangi taking on the heights in the subaru impreza 555
But the madness didn’t stop there. Karim Hirji had moved on to the Celica ST205, a car that was so good, Toyota had to cheat just to win. Yes, you read that right. The ST205 was disqualified from the WRC because Toyota engineers figured out how to bypass the air restrictor and make it breathe better than a marathon runner on oxygen. Inspired by Hirji, Katto also got himself an ST205, and both drivers decided, “You know what? Let’s go embarrass some international boys.” They entered the WRC Safari Rally and somehow finished inside the top 10, proving that Ugandans were not just spectators we were here to play.
Karim Hirji’s Celica ST205
Then, in 1999, Emmanuel Katto took things a step further. He re-entered the WRC Safari rally in a rented Subaru Impreza WRC 97, the same car Colin McRae had used to win the 1997 Safari Rally. Hirji, not to be outdone, just went ahead and bought one outright. That’s right he didn’t borrow, didn’t lease, just walked into the dealership and said, “I’ll take that one.” This became the first and only WRC car to ever race on African roads outside of the Safari Rally.
Of course, Katto wasn’t going to let Hirji flex on him like that, so in 2001, he bought the car from him. Then Charles Muhangi, not one to be left behind, bought it in 2002. By this point, the car had traveled more in Uganda than most boda boda riders in a week.
While Hirji, Katto, and Muhangi were grabbing headlines, other legends were making their mark. Moses Lumala got his hands on Katto’s GT4 ST165, while Charles Lubega upgraded to an ex-Hirji ST185, only for Lumala to snatch that one from him too (because why have one rally car when you can have two?). Lubega, however, had the last laugh when he introduced Uganda’s first-ever Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4, officially bringing the Evo vs. Subaru rivalry to life in our backyard.
Then there was Chipper Adams, arguably the most talented driver of them all, but unfortunately, his budget was about as small as a matatu’s legroom. Instead of world-class machines, he settled for an older Group A Toyota Supra massively powerful but rear-wheel drive, meaning half the time he was rallying, he was also drifting unintentionally.
This was also a time when oil companies didn’t just sell fuel they sold dreams. Shell, Total, and Caltex each sponsored a round of the national championship, throwing money around like they were funding a presidential campaign. Caltex opened the season, the Total Pearl of Africa Rally was the mid-year showdown, and the Formula Shell Rally closed the year, usually deciding the championship in a spectacular showdown. Smaller brands also jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to get a piece of the motorsport magic.
Between 1993 and 1995, Karim Hirji was the undisputed champion, but when the other boys upgraded their machinery, the titles started rotating like a well-cooked rolex: Katto in 1996 and 1997, Muhangi in 1998, Lumala in 1999, and Lubega in 2000. Every year, the battle was fierce, the fans were crazy, and the noise levels were enough to make a vuvuzela sound like a whisper.
Where Did It All Go?
Sadly, the golden age had to end. The rise of stricter regulations, the global financial crisis, and the fact that most of these rally legends eventually ran out of spare parts (and patience) meant that by the mid-2000s, things started changing. Sponsorships dwindled, the WRC cars vanished like a magician’s trick,, and suddenly, the biggest thing on Ugandan roads was not a turbocharged Subaru but a Toyota Premio with a loud exhaust that sounded like it was trying to start a revolution..
But for those who lived through it, the memories remain. The days when Uganda was Africa’s motorsport capital, when fuel was cheap, and when being a rally driver automatically made you a local celebrity. It was, without a doubt, the greatest era in Ugandan motorsport history.
Veteran rally fan WRX Mugerwa, who has followed the sport since the 90s, had his own thoughts on the evolution of Ugandan rallying:
“Ehh, my friend, back in the day, rally cars had character! When a Group A Subaru passed by, you felt it in your bones. The anti-lag alone could make your ancestors wake up! But now? These modern cars just hum politely like they don’t want to disturb the neighbors. Where is the drama? Where is the excitement? Even the drivers these days look too comfortable back then, a driver had to fight the car like a man wrestling a crocodile. The only thing I appreciate now is the safety. In our time, a rally car could roll three times, and the driver would just dust himself off and say, ‘We go again!’”
And if you think otherwise, well, let’s just agree to disagree before an old-school rally fan throws a used turbo at your head.
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