DISMAS Kayibanda has been named the honorary president of Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC), ten years after being in office as the local rally body boss.

Kayibanda was declared honorary president by the general assembly which met last weekend to elect the new executive committee.

"I was requested by the members, who constituted the general assembly to become the honorary president of RAC and there is no way I could let them down.

"I had earlier requested to be replaced after I did my best in elevating rally sports in the country for the past ten years.

"As the honorary president, I will continue to support the sport as well as help my successor through the transition,” Kayibanda told Times Sport in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Yves Kagina was elected to replace Kayibanda as the president of Rwanda Automobile Club while Irene Munyaneza was elected the vice president.

The general assembly named five members, who would select the secretary general and treasurer among themselves.

Kayibanda took over from Belgian Serge Evrard in 1999 and under his reign, Rwandan motorsport has reached new heights.

The country’s leading rally driver Tony Seagerman awarded Kayibanda with a leadership appreciation trophy on behalf of RAC members for his role in the development of sport for the past ten years.

On top of pushing Rwanda’s Mountain Gorilla rally onto the FIA Africa Rally Championship (ARC), he was also pivotal in attracting huge sponsorship for the sport.

The KCB Rwanda Mt. Gorilla rally will become the fourth round on the 2010 FIA Africa Rally Championship.

The rally has been set June 04-06, 2010 and will come after the Kobil Rally of Tanzania (February 19-21), KCB Safari Rally Kenya (April 02-04) and Pearl of Africa Uganda rally (April 30-May 02).

The six-round championship will crown off with the Zambia International rally (July 16-18) and Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally (August 27-29).

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