#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...
Day Four: A good road with bad users
With tired legs and blisters we were nursing from Day Three, it was a slow start to the day. For the first time, all of us were not present at the agreed meeting time for breakfast and take-off at 6.30am. We eventually assembled, ate and were ready to take off 45 minutes late. By this time, we had covered almost half the distance of the whole journey. We rolled out of Iganga town and onto the highway going eastwards. 5km in, we branched off onto the Tirinyi highway heading towards Mbale. It’s a newly completed road, the driving surface is smooth...
Day Three: The changing face of the highway and what needs to be done
Moments before we entered Jinja on Day Two, I knew the stage was set for conversations. As we popped out of Lugazi sugar plantations, motorists who had been following our trek on radio started making brief stops to engage more on the issues, others to express their appreciation, and others to grab a selfie. At Njeru town we were welcomed by the team from Tugende and then a contingent from Jinja Boy Scouts Association. When we woke up on Wednesday, the same team from the Boy Scouts was waiting for us, ready to lead us to Jinja Senior Secondary School....
Day Two: Memories of the past informing what we need for the future
It threatened to be a long and brutal journey today with 45km plus to cover in such a short time. So we set off very early. By 5.55am we were out of the door and on the road. Our first brief stop-off for a cup of tea to warm us up was at Bannz Café where we met several people, including escorts of VIPs who said they were following the walk keenly. It made me hope that people are picking the message on road safety. Before we got there however, what struck me was seeing many parents along taking their children...
DAY ONE: High Energy and awesome time management
It was 5:15pm when we were done and docked at Namataba for the night. The weather was good and made it tempting to roll on but it would be suicide. Our advance team wouldn’t be able to find suitable and affordable accommodation 10km ahead and neither could we risk walking into the deep of the night through Mabira forest. The day started with awesomeness, something very rare of our government officials. At exactly 6:00am, the Deputy Speaker’s advance team was at the Independence Monument, the venue for the flag-off. At 6:15am, they announced that Rt. Hon. Tayebwa would be with us...
Joe Walker, friends kick off Kampala-Mbale trek
Road safety advocate Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker, together with friends on Monday morning, kicked off the Kampala to Mbale road safety awareness trek under the theme “Too Young to Die”. The long-awaited walk was flagged off by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa in a function held at the Independence Monument in Kampala. While addressing the press before flagging Beyanga, Tayebwa lauded the group for keeping time before urging Ugandan drivers to be cautious on the road. Joe Walker and friends arrived at the monument at 6am ahead of the official flag-off at 6:30am. “I think one of the...
Road safety; responsibility of all
Patrick Kamara hosts road safety advocate, Mr. Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker, and Mr. Sam Bambaza from Hope for Victims of Traffic Accidents on KFM HotSeat show to discuss road safety. Listen to the full episode below; ...