How Team Kisoboka planned, executed and won
By David Mujuni Team Kisoboka emerged victorious in the 60km relay remembrance walk held on November 19th, 2023. The walk was spearheaded by road safety advocate Joe Walker to honour road crash victims. The winning team comprised six members; Hebert Kanyali aka KGB, Alex Hashaka (team leader), Kenneth Asiimwe, Carlos Pambara, Solomon Kobwemi, and Ritah Orikiriza. Two of the team members (Alex & Solomon) travelled from Masaka to Kampala at the crazy hour of 3am to ensure they arrived on time for the event, as Herbert Kanyali narrates. Planning “Right from the start, we selected our members by determining those that would be able...
Participants brave rain to complete 60km Remembrance Walk
By David Mujuni Participants in the Joe Walker Remembrance Road Safety Walk defied many odds on Sunday November 19th, when they completed the 60-kilometre walk aimed at honouring road crash victims. The walkers converged as early as 5:30am at UMA, Lugogo in Kampala ahead of the memorable relay walk spearheaded by road safety advocate Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker. Fired up for the task, several teams composed of six people fronted their starting members who were given batons that they held onto for 10 kilometres before handing them over to the next teammate. The first group hit the road at about...
We are walking for a good cause – Participants share highlights of the 60km Remembrance walk
By David Mujuni Despite the Sunday morning rain that started at about 8am, a number of participants were able to complete their 10km task each in the Joe Walker 60km Remembrance Road Safety Walk. There were cases where some walkers covered over 20km after some of their teammates failed to make it. According to the plan, each six-member team was supposed to cover 60km with each participant walking 10km in an activity that started at 6am at UMA, Lugogo in Kampala. We talked to a number of participants who shared their experiences with us. Hosea Wasswa, who was the first walker from Team...
Remembrance Walk off to a good start
By Carol Alyek Beyanga By 5.30am, participants had gathered at UMA Showgrounds ready to take part in the Joe Walker Remembrance Walk. Teammates were ready, swapping ideas, doing last minute stretches and warm-up exercises. Before setting off, Joseph Beyanga, aka Joe Walker, reminded the walkers about the importance of road safety and the main reason they were walking. "Each of us knows someone who has been in an accident. For many who got injured, they cannot be with us. For the 4,534 who passed on last year, they can never be with us," Joe Walker stated solemnly, reminding the teams to enjoy...
Walking Clubs: How it started vs how it’s going
More than a month ago, Joe Walker launched the Walking Clubs which were set up to bring together people from all walks of life, interested in walking as a lifestyle or as a form of physical exercise within their neighborhoods. Filder Kobugabe shares her experience so far. I started my journey of walking, around early June when preparing for the 45-kilometre walk. Before that, I had taken almost a year without jogging or doing any type of exercise, which was not good. I was really unfit. By the time I joined the Joe Walker community, I had weighed myself and discovered...
Joe Walker covers 50km in 7 hours
By Joe Walker Over the weekend, I stepped out with a friend, Ken Asiimwe at 6am for a 45km stroll across the city. The plan was to catch up, share dreams and inspire each other to be better walkers. We set off from Sheraton, and 2km into the walk, we met a 62-year-old at Mulago roundabout who already had 6km on his clock, and boy it felt like he was airborne. He looked over his shoulder and signaled at us to match his pace and walk with him. We obliged. Two minutes into the conversation, he could trace our ancestry back to...
#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 set for Kampala road safety drive
By David Mujuni Road safety advocate Mr Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker is set to walk again in another road safety awareness drive. Mr Beyanga has announced that he will be hitting the road for a 45km road safety awareness walk come June 17, 2023, in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. He made the revelation during a road safety awareness Twitter space hosted by Hovita on Tuesday evening. “We are doing Kampala walk on 17th June, Hill to Hill 45 kilometres. We are doing all this for road safety. We have activities like painting zebra crossings, visiting the victims of road crashes, and...
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...