Maxine Wahome, a Kenyan rally driver, entered a not-guilty plea after being accused of killing her partner and fellow competitor Assad Khan.
Khan, who had suffered a leg injury, passed away at a hospital in December of last year.
Wahome is charged with assaulting the 50-year-old at their Nairobi flat, but he has maintained that she was a victim of domestic abuse and that Khan hurt himself out of rage.
Wahome, who is the descendant of a rally driver, has been involved in motorsport since she was five years old. She first competed in autocross and motocross before deciding to convert to rallying in her late teens.
She created history in June of last year when she won Kenya’s Safari Rally, the third-tier leg of the World Championship series, being the first woman to do it in more than 20 years.
Wahome has now been expelled from the WRC’s Young Rally Stars Program, which helps discover and develop up-and-coming motorsport talent, as a result of the murder charge.
Until her bail hearing on March 21, the 27-year-old will stay in detention.
