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...
#JoeWalker clocks 4,000km!
By Joe Walker 20 months ago, I was grappling with the doctor’s instructions to try walking to relieve a stubborn pain in the shoulder blade. The doctor recommended a 30 minute-walk thrice a week. On the first day I walked for an hour, 5 months down the road I was setting out for a 342km road safety walk to Bushenyi and since then I have walked for 4,000km. And, I am still walking. Four lessons over the thousands of kilometers Plan: Taking long effective walks takes a lot of patience, you can’t rush the process. It’s one step at a time. So proper planning and...
Kampala Hill to Hill Walk: A tale of road safety awareness, physical and mental triumph
By David Mujuni The distance was 45km. The time to depart was 6am on Saturday June 17, 2023. The route would see the team walking from the starting point at Sheraton Hotel Parking, through the town, onto Bugolobi, then to Makindye, over to Namirembe, then to Wandegeya and back to the hotel parking. This was yet another activity that Mr Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker was going to do as part of his efforts to raise awareness about the increasing road crashes in Uganda. The Kampala Hill-to-Hill walk presented another opportunity for the walkers to spread the road safety...
Joe Walker, partners visit accident victims at Mulago Hospital
By David Mujuni Road safety activist Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker and friends on Wednesday visited and commiserated with accident victims admitted at Mulago National Referral Hospital. The visit is part of their activities as they prepare for the Kampala 45-kilometre walk slated for Saturday, June 17, 2023. The group delivered assorted items including sugar, bread, soap and others to the patients, and encouraged them, saying they are in the right hands, at Mulago Hospital. The team was hosted by Dr. Rose Byanyima, the hospital’s Executive Director. Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Beyanga noted that many people would not be driving if...
Joe Walker, Minister Kabuye headline Car-free Day
By David Mujuni In a bid to reduce air pollution, road safety champion, Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker alongside State Minister for Kampala and Metropolitan affairs, Mr. Kabuye Kyofatogabye led a group of walkers as Uganda held a car-free day in Kampala on Sunday March 26, 2023 under the theme "road safety and air quality." Minister Kyofatogabye who was among those who preferred riding to walking highlighted the need for encouraging non-motorized corridors. “Can you imagine without police people managed to organize themselves?” Kyofatogabye said, adding that if the use of non-motorised corridors was encouraged and people observed the cycling...
Joe Walker commended by Jubilee Allianz
Joe Walker and friends were on Thursday, March 9th, commended and appreciated for the walk to Mbale, by Jubilee Allianz at the Railway Grounds in Kampala, where the company was participating in the Annual Insurance Week. In a campaign dubbed #TooYoungtoDie, Joseph Beyanga (commonly known as Joe Walker), with his friends and colleagues walked over 240km to Mbale to raise awareness about road safety. Jubilee Allianz was one of the sponsors of the walk and provided the team with Shs5 million to cater for logistics and educational materials, something that Joe Walker said was a big boost to the campaign. “Thank you...
Reliving walk from Kampala to Mbale
By Andrew Mwanguhya “I’m doing this. All in,” I declared on the Daily Monitor sports WhatsApp group on the morning of January 6, exactly a month before the long walk to Mbale, some 240 kilometres from the starting point in Kampala. My declaration came with a link to a tweet by Nation Media Group Uganda’s head of Radio, Joseph Beyanga, where he was drumming up his upcoming walk to Mbale from Kampala in a road safety awareness drive. Many colleagues applauded my resolve to join Beyanga, who - for the second year running - is walking under the Joe Walker moniker. Safe Roads Save Lives and...
Joe Walker embarks on another road safety trek
By Stephen Otage Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has urged all Ugandans in their different capacities to step forward and do something to stop road carnage. Mr Tayebwa observed that in December last year, road accidents claimed lives of many Ugandans, including his fellow Member of Parliament Patrick Okabe and his brother-in-law, which calls for mobilisation of all Ugandans to embrace road safety. “This cause is for all of us. Recently I lost a brother in-law, Bishop Okabe and his wife died in a road accident, Justice Mugamba lost three people on the same day,” he said. He made the remarks at the...