The Total Kenya Motorshow has maintained its position as the biggest auto event in middle Africa. Despite the spectre of global recession the 2009 edition at Nairobi's Ngong Racecourse had more stands, more action and more spectators than ever!
All the biggest names in the market were on display, featuring the latest models of every class of motor vehicle from little motorbikes to giant trucks, with supporting accessories, components and back-up services arrayed in 70 "showroom" stands. |
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There was a non-stop timetable of action events ranging from bulldozers literally moving the earth to aerobatics proving the sky is not the limit. There were stunt driving demonstrations, 4WDs tackling an obstacle course while firefighters bombarded them from high ladders, motorcycle scramblers leaping their machines over yumps, all to the stirring strains of marching bands and the thumping rhythm of rock groups on the central stage. |
Spectators flock to the show in ever greater numbers – over the 3 days of this year's event some 18,500 visitors came for the action attractions, for the chance to see every make and model on the market side by side, to get behind the wheel in test drives, to talk to technicians, negotiate special show prices…and there were half-a-dozen banks exhibiting right on the spot to help them clinch the deals.
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Total's formula of displays and action delivers not only a one-stop shop for business bargains but also a family fun day. More than 2,000 children came through the turnstyles and – depending on their age - thrilled to swoops and loops of aircraft, the roar of motorsports action, and the feel of the wheel of the cars of their present dreams…and future purchases. For the very young there were bouncy castles and other entertainments, and even a fully supervised crèche. |
At the official opening, show chairman Nawaz Popat said: "In a year when the promotional budgets of motor companies were likely to be very tight, the viability and value of the motorshow had to be seriously reassessed.
We are here today because that assessment showed Kenya's motor industry to be committed and determined to uphold its services and standards no matter how tough the times, and showed the motorshow to be a vitally important link with the motoring public – it would not be the first thing to go in a cost-cutting year, but the last!" |
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Naresh Leekha, chairman of the Kenya Motor Industry Association which co-hosts the event, said: "One of the reasons Kenya's motor industry can be so positive, even in the most difficult economic times, is because we have had a lot of practice. For us, a little thing like a global credit crunch does not make conditions much more difficult than they have always been. It is when we have a year that is NOT tough that there will be something to talk about." |
He added: "As you consider the value to you of the products you see here today, keep
one corner of your mind open to the very many and very large values to Kenya's
entire road transport economy, and investment, and jobs, and taxes, and skills,
and overall social and standards development, that this thing called 'the formal
sector' and 'the motor industry' represents."
Total's Corporate Affairs manager Maurice Kanjejo said: "Kenya is very blessed to have a strong commercial environment that is resilient enough to ride a global economic storm.
It is something very special in this region, and Total has both contributed to, and benefited from, its development and strength. We hope to continue to both give and gain, and to continue to work in Kenya, with Kenya, and for Kenya, for many years to come." |
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Describing the market as a "commercial forest", he added: "The formal sector always plants (with investment) before it cuts. And it always ensures that it continues to plant and nurture – with jobs and skills and standards and taxes – more than it harvests in profits. Kenya's very special commercial environment has taken as long to grow as a big tree. It has borne much fruit.
It is valuable but also vulnerable…if we allow it to be attacked by the "chain saw" of short-term opportunists who wish to harvest without planting, who wish to plunder the market, chop down the trees, without a care for the rules of sustainability – who disregard the importance of brand and franchise integrity, of quality standards, of safety, of social welfare, of fair competition… |
| "We look forward to seeing long-term investment principles and standards being championed by government policy, and uncompromisingly enforced. If that is done, then this show is a symbol of the environment that will result." The attendance figures at the Total Kenya Motorshow are not great in world terms; Kenya, after all, contains just 0.1% of all the vehicles in the world and represents just 0.02% of the global new vehicle market each year. But for a show in a market with annual new vehicle sales of 10,000 to attract a crowd of 18,500 is – proportionately - like a show in London or Paris attracting more than two million visitors. |
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Show director Gavin Bennett said: "Exhibitions are more than just showcases and customer catchments – they provide a really convenient one-stop-shop service to consumers, they lay long-term foundations of brand image and awareness, and they are a great symbol to the wider world of a country's dynamism and investment climate. The scale and quality and popularity of the KMI-Total Kenya Motorshow, its prestige and regional preeminence, is not just a sales promotion – it is a national promotion." |
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