Day Seven: Joe Walker celebrates birthday, highlights road safety concerns
By Joe Walker Guys it’s day seven of the #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk. We set off from Kyegegwa at 6:50am, and at 7:18pm, we were at our campsite, 47km from the start. The actual distance is 45km but I added an extra 2 special kilometers to make 47 to celebrate my 47th birthday. One of the things that stands out today on our Kyegegwa to Kiregesa walk is that drivers have made that Miryante stretch a black spot that needs serious attention because of the speeding, racing and reckless overtaking. The road markings have long faded, the signage...
Day Six: Joe Walker enters Tooro Kingdom
By Joe Walker It’s been one rollercoaster of a day. We entered Tooro Kingdom shortly after 11am. We were welcomed by Minister of Education in Tooro Kingdom Owek. Godfrey Rwembebera Adyeeri and other kingdom officials, plus the Kyegegwa OC Traffic Afande Kwasibwe. We were in Kyegegwa by 5pm. After all the protocols and mobilisation of logistics were done, at about 6pm we started painting the Zebra crossing. By 8pm, Kyegegwa had its only Zebra crossing; hopefully it will change the narrative around road safety. We had great support from Tooro Kingdom, Deputy Town Clerk Douglas Mugenyi, and the OC Traffic Police Kyegegwa and his...
Day Five: Joe Walker, friends reach Mubende
By Joe Walker With our eyes set on scaling 15km from Kyenda to Mubende before 9am, #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk crew rolled the engines and hit the road at cruise control, at 6am. As the clouds started peeling off the skies for the sun to rise, we were halfway through our trek and Mubende right now is under our feet. We were set for engagements with boda boda riders, roadside market vendors, and then the municipality leaders. Our first stop today was in Mubende Municipality. Our first engagement was with the Market Vendors Association. Oh boy, it...
Day Four: No money is worth risking your life
By Joe Walker What a beautiful start to day four of the #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk. We kicked off the day with an interactive session with the pupils of Kyakatebe Primary School. We taught the children the ABCs of road safety and armed them with a few tips to cross the roads safely and #GetHomeSafe. At 7:57am, it was our turn to put those tips into action as we hit the road heading towards Mubende. The first thing that hit me was the writing on a truck, “No Money is Enough”. It stayed with me as we...
A dive into day 3 of Kampala – Fort Portal trek
By Joe Walker Day three of the #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk lifted off at Mityana at 7:26am where we headed to Kyakatebe. The weather has been merciful to us and so far every day, there has been some light rain which provides a good environment to walk in. We have so far been saved the heat that threatened to be present. We zoomed out of Mityana town to Naama. The road under construction is interesting; very wide with a fast double lane in the middle and two side lanes to serve town traffic, cyclists and pedestrians....
Day Two: The daily struggle of pedestrians on Ugandan roads
By Joe Walker We set off from Bujjuko at exactly 7am, and walked the ups and downs and corners of Jeeza in the morning drizzle till 9am or thereabouts. All through the rain I couldn’t help but keep wondering and praying about crazy drivers speeding on wet roads, overtaking in corners with compromised visibility, the boda bodas carrying three children on one bike going to school and young ones braving the rain, walking to school. Just like it is in Mengo, Wakaligga, Nateete, Busega, Bulenga, Buloba, and Buyala, so it is in Bujjuko and Mityana; there are no pedestrian walkways and even those...
Kampala to Fort Portal: Day one ends successfully
We have safely come to the end of Day One of the #JoeWalker Kampala to Fort Portal road safety awareness walk. We started off at 6:45am at the Independence monument, Nile Avenue. We were flagged off by Hon. Gen. Katumba Wamala Minister of Works and Transport who urged drivers to take extra care and protect the walkers. The minister retaliated the government’s commitment to crack down on errant drivers starting with those of government cars; review the infrastructure to make it safe for all road users; and improve safety of pedestrians. After the brief speech, boom….he flagged us off. Gen. Wamala...
Joe Walker, friends take on 300km challenge to Fort Portal
By David Mujuni In the wee hours of Monday morning, Joe Walker and his fellow trekkers gathered at the Independence Monument in Kampala to take on yet another challenge. Despite the chill brought by the previous night's rain, the group were united by a common goal: spreading road safety awareness in Uganda. The walkers began arriving as early as 6am, determined to conquer over 300 kilometres in their road safety awareness drive that is expected to last for 9 days. The arrival of the chief guest, Transport and Works Minister Gen Katumba Wamala, further bolstered the group's spirit. In his address, Gen Katumba...
Joe Walker: Why I’m trekking to Fort Portal
By David Mujuni After successfully completing two national walks from Kampala to Bushenyi and Mbale in 2022 and 2023 respectively, Joe Walker will embark on his third trek on February 26, 2024. This time, he sets his sights on Fort Portal Tourism City in Western Uganda, leading fellow walking enthusiasts on a 310-kilometer journey to raise awareness about road safety. While raising awareness remains the core purpose, his choice of Fort Portal this year holds deeper meaning. Joe Walker whose official name is Joseph Beyanga recognizes the Kampala-Fort Portal highway's significance in the national road network, highlighting Tooro Kingdom’s scenic beauty as...
How regular walking positively changes lives
The benefits of walking are well documented.A number of studies have showed that walking regularly is one of the most effective ways to a healthy life because, experts say, unlike most other exercises,walking works on all the muscles and organs of the body. But as it turns out, reading research data and hearing real-life testimonies are two different things. Testimonies from Ugandans that walk regularly have revealed that walking is more than exercise. It is meditation, it is massage, it is an aphrodisiac, it is a path to weight loss and it heals not just the body but the soul...