Day 9: Joe Walker, friends reach Fort Portal
The #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk has safely docked in Fort Portal.
We walked through the districts of Kampala, Wakiso, Mpigi, Mityana, Mubende, Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo and finally Kabarole. We set off this morning from King Oyo Model Farm in Bugaaki and at 10:25pm crossed into Kabarole District. By 3pm we were in Fort Portal City, the seat of Tooro Kingdom.
We were joined by students, leaders and administrators from Uganda Pentecostal University at Kaswa, who also brought us tonnes of refreshments. As we emerged out of Mpanga Tea Estates, we were joined by the DPC of Fort Portal City who later handed us over to OC Traffic, Mr Atwijukire. Along the way, we were joined by our partners from Stanbic Bank Uganda led by the regional branch manager, Ms Mable Nsemere. We chatted a lot about road safety and why everyone should be concerned.
As the numbers of walking group was swelling, the roads were getting narrower. Thank God for the Police controlling the traffic flow at this point, otherwise it would have been chaotic.
Slowly we trudged on to our final stopping point of the day. As we walked passed Mpanga market, I was reminded of the lady who was recently squeezed to death by the truck at the narrow Mpanga bridge. For a road with that volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, that size at the bridge is unacceptable and a recipe for disaster.
We continued majestically marching on to the King’s Palace where the kingdom officials, police officers and city officials were eagerly waiting for us at the top of the hill.
Wow… What a view! You get to see everything in Fort Portal and far off lands as far as your eyes can see. Beautiful.
We were welcomed by the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Harriet Nyakake flanked by the Regional Police Chief, Afande James Ruhweza and the Speaker for Fort Portal City Albert Ahebwa. Ms Nyakake promised to support the #JoeWalker initiatives and champion the drive to improve road safety in the Kingdom. As a sign of appreciation of the initiative, I was officially welcomed as a son of the soil and handed a flag of Tooro Kingdom.
Off we rolled down to the Kingdom offices for further interactions and discussed opportunities for future collaborations to ensure we keep the road safety message alive and effective.
The same compound houses Uganda Pentecostal University where we had a brief conversation. The Vice Chancellor, Ms Pelucy Kabahuma Ntambirweki applauded our drive and shared how road safety is affecting them as a community since all the institutions’ students are day scholars.
Just as the walk from Kampala to Fort Portal is long and exhausting, so is our road to creating safe roads; it won’t come easy and it will take everyone’s efforts and unwavering determination.
The journey continues tomorrow with a series of engagements on the streets, school compounds and the church auditoriums as we put our hands together to make sure we reverse the trend on our roads to ensure we all #GetHomeSafe.
#TooYoungToDie
