The rally was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 under the name East African Coronation Safari, covering territory across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika. Conceived as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the event immediately established itself as an extreme test of both driver and machine across the varied terrain of East Africa.
In 1960 the event was renamed the East African Safari Rally. It retained that name until 1974, when it was shortened to the Safari Rally. From 1973 it became part of the inaugural World Rally Championship calendar, cementing its international standing.
The original Safari Rally ran over approximately 5,000 kilometres of route across a variety of road surfaces, including fesh fesh (very fine powdered sand), fast farm tracks, and extremely rough roads traversing the Great Rift Valley. In heavy rain, sections would turn to deep mud. The entire route was competitive mileage, run on open public roads, with the winner determined by the lowest accumulation of penalty time between time controls.
Average speeds historically exceeded 100 kilometres per hour, making the Safari one of the fastest events in the world championship. However, the harshness of the terrain meant reliability frequently proved as important as outright pace. Winners were often the fastest drivers who also managed mechanical survival, or the most consistently cautious among the frontrunners.
Teams built purpose-strengthened cars for the event, incorporating bullbars, water-crossing snorkels, and powerful auxiliary lighting to warn wildlife on the open roads at night. In the 1990s, Toyota Team Europe maintained a dedicated Kenya-based test team year-round, developing their rally cars specifically for the event's unique demands. During competition, roadside repairs consumed time and added to elapsed totals.
In later years, tyre mousse inserts — which allow a wheel to continue functioning after a puncture — enabled drivers to run flat out despite the punishing distances. In 1996 the event adopted the special stage format used by other WRC rounds and banned the use of helicopters to ferry service equipment ahead of the cars.
From 1996 to 2002, the Safari Rally featured approximately 2,000 kilometres of timed stages, with individual stages regularly exceeding 60 kilometres — far longer than the norm in the WRC, where most rounds totalled under 500 kilometres of competitive distance. Winners' accumulated time penalties exceeded twelve hours in 1996, reflecting the extraordinary length and difficulty of the stages. The event was removed from the WRC calendar after 2002 due to a lack of financing and organisational infrastructure.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta announced plans in 2013 to bring the Safari Rally back to the world championship. In September 2019 it was confirmed that the 2020 event would return to the WRC calendar, though that edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Safari Rally eventually returned on 24–27 June 2021, held in Naivasha, Nakuru County, on the floor of the Rift Valley. Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia won the comeback event in a Toyota Yaris WRC. The Safari Rally holds a WRC contract through 2026.
Between 2003 and its WRC return, the Safari Rally was part of the African Rally Championship. Two editions — 2007 and 2009 — also featured as rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
Kenyan drivers Shekhar Mehta and Carl Tundo each claim five outright victories, making them the most successful competitors in the history of the event. Mehta won first in 1973 and then consecutively from 1979 to 1982, all during the event's WRC era. Tundo's five victories came during the event's African Rally Championship period: 2004, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2018. Tundo has also finished on the podium twelve times in total. Fellow Kenyan Ian Duncan accumulated nine podium finishes.
From 2003, a heritage event called the East African Safari Classic Rally has been held biennially, open to vehicles built before 1985. The classic event covers approximately 5,000 kilometres over nine days, closely echoing the format of the original Safari Rally. The 2017 edition produced joint winners when Richard Jackson and Carl Tundo finished with identical times.
The Safari Rally holds a singular place in motorsport history as a test of mechanical and human endurance unlike any other event in the WRC calendar. Its reputation for extreme terrain, unpredictable conditions, and the sheer scale of its stages has made it a benchmark against which all other rally events are measured for toughness. The event's revival in 2021 was widely welcomed by the motorsport community as the restoration of an irreplaceable piece of rallying heritage.