AUDIO: Report on Kampala-Mbale walk
By Benjamin Jumbe Joseph Beyanga better known as Joe Walker has just concluded yet another long walk as part of his road safety campaign. The walk, which was held under the theme "Too Young to Die", saw him together with friends trek miles to Mbale City in the eastern part of Uganda and took six days. In this report, Joe shares his experience, and plans for future campaigns to keep road safety at the top of people's minds. Listen to the report below; ...
Kampala to Mbale walk: What we saw, heard and how to make our roads safer
The #JoeWalker Kampala to Mbale trek was a different challenge from what we had done earlier. It was a shorter route, but a rough road for half the journey, and had more reckless drivers and harsher weather conditions. It also had however, rich and insightful engagements. Pedestrians As we streamed out of Nakawa eastwards, we were embarking on a rough unfriendly road that would be our cup of tea for the next 125km till we got to Tirinyi Road. With more people walking than cars on the road, the experience of a pedestrian on most of our roads is still a nightmare....
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...
The final legs: Teamwork and friendships will bring down strongholds
By Joe Walker We tried preparing for the walk both physically and mentally but nothing could have prepared us for the heat on Friday and Saturday. We had been lucky all the days before. It rained on day one as we approached Namawojjolo. It rained on day two as we got out of Mabira Forest and also as we entered Njeru. On the third day, the rain pushed us out of Magamaga, and on the fourth day we had a gentle cloud cover as pushed through Nakalama to Busembatia. From that point on however, all the sun’s fury descended on us...
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....
PICTORIAL: How Kampala-Mbale trek started
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. Check out the pictorial below; ...
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...
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...
Deputy Speaker Tayebwa to flag off Kampala-Mbale walk
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa will on Monday, February 6, 2023, flag off the Kampala-Mbale road safety awareness walk at the Independence Monument in Kampala. Under the theme “Joe Walker and Friends – Too Young To Die”, the walk is spearheaded by Joseph Beyanga commonly known as Joe Walker, the Head of Radio at Nation Media Group – Uganda and Secretary-General, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). We believe the walk is more than just a walk due to the pool of activities lined up including road user sensitization and road safety education and awareness through, community interactions, school visits, media...