I'm in Ethiopia now having come from Uganda. The road from Isiolo (280km N Nairobi) to Moyale (Kenya/Ethiopia border) is a bitch. It's 500km and at least 14 hours of driving although they are tarring some of it.
Coincidently about half way between Moyale and Addis on Thursday we came across a couple driving down from Edinburgh to Rwanda in a Disco. It had taken them 5 weeks to get there. You could get to Uganda in ten days from this point max.
Anyway, they'd blown what I believe was the head gasket but he was a bit vague and so we watched as about 100 locals were attempting to push it on to the back of a little truck to drive it 400km back to Addis to get it fixed. I'll post some photos in a bit when I find my cable for the camera.
He didn't seem to be bothered about it at all - but then he has god on his side. They were moving their church down to Kigali or something.
But I hope his god can help with the vehicle importation - I'm sure his disco was RHD and it's illegal to permanently import a right hooker into Rwanda, and they're planning on living there. Of course in Uganda they drive on the left so it's not a problem but still worth looking at the importation aspect if you're planning on leaving them there.
One thought on the sponsorship - Kingsley Holgate, the bearded wonder of overlanding reckons it is by far in a way the hardest aspect of the trip. He's written untold books on it, is the (hairy) face of Captain Morgan in S.A. and still can't manage to get much sponsorship. Mike Copeland who wrote the reasonably useful Cape to Cairo says the same - try the village fete?