A year later, Joe set to walk to Mbale

When he set out to walk from Kampala to Bushenyi in March 2022, most of his reasons for the walk were personal. He was doing the walk in March, his birthday month, was walking to Bushenyi, his home and thus, was basically retracing footsteps of his father.

It was so personal, he was turning 45 on March 3 and was connecting that to 1945, the year his father and a group of other men had embarked on a trip from Bushenyi to Buganda seeking opportunities.

“The first time they came, they worked in the gardens but the second time round, they worked as porters on sites. My uncle was the porter, my father being young, he worked as a cook and spent much of the time watching those constructing,” he said in an interview last year.

His walk thus was sentimental, he was living his father and uncle’s footsteps as well as preaching a message of safety on the roads.

He is Joseph Beyanga, now known to many as Joe Walker. 
He is head of radio at Nation Media Group Uganda, a family man, leader and since he does not seem to like the ‘activist’ moniker, we shall call him a champion for a change on Ugandan roads.

Tomorrow, Monday February 6, Beyanga will be joined by friends to embark on yet another route, Mbale.
According to Beyanga, the choice of Mbale was informed by a number of things, one of them being the directorate of traffic and road safety report. The report by the traffic police shows that Kampala occupies the top three spots of accident distribution by police region, Bukedi from the east is fourth. Many other places such as Elgon and other parts of Busoga make up the distribution.

Heading to Mbale
The road to Mbale, the one used by many, goes from Kampala through Nakawa, Mukono, Lugazi then Jinja. Between Lugazi and Jinja, the road is a hotbed of carnage because of its abandoned nature, especially as people weave through the Mabira Forest and various miles of sugarcane plantations.

Most of the accidents in the forests have been attributed to reckless driving especially at night when authorities abandon the roads. 

“The whole of Jinja Road is a hotspot, remember it is busy with buses and trailers coming from Kenya. We have lost two MPs on that road and it is the only road that has accidents but it is one of the most dangerous ones,”Beyanga says.

He says that none of our roads are safe because of various factors such as poor signage, demarcations, lighting and worse, in 2023, our roads are yet to embrace technology.

“A road is supposed to be talking to the user, one should know when to turn, when to go slow… our roads don’t speak to the users,” he says.

Just like last year, Beyanga says the biggest victims of road carnage are still pedestrians yet people that construct these roads don’t seem to plan for them.

But he still says there is a need to improve the quality of people behind the steering wheel; “In Uganda, you wake up in the morning and by evening, you have a permit. No one knows whether you have been tested.”
Beyanga says that the process of giving out permits needs to become tighter and more screening of potential drivers is needed.

When Beyanga walked to Bushenyi in 2022, he went through rigorous training, shopping for the right gear and finding the right diet for the trip.

This time around, as he says, Joe Walker and friends, he has many people he will be walking with and many more that he hopes will be joining in.

He is getting himself ready for the walk but also getting many people ready that will join the walk.
“Most of the people I walked with last time are coming back for this walk and many others are joining me,” he says.

Activities
For five days in the next week, Mbale will be a hive of activities as another group of hikers including Robert Kabushenga and Amos Wekesa will be climbing Mountain Elgon to create awareness on climate change.
The group will be setting off at the same time as Beyanga though the later will drive but it’s believed they will be coming down the mountain the day the walkers reach Mbale.

However, he says that unlike the last time where the weather was relatively stable, today it’s very unpredictable, one day it’s raining and scorching hot the next day.

“The preference is a dry season but not scorching hot. At the moment, it’s staggering, some days are hot and others are cold,” he says.

However even on scorching hot days, he says the thought of what people go through when they lose loved ones on roads keeps him going.

“When I think about what people go through, I remember not to focus on my pain,” he says.
On this walk, Joe Walker and friends will do a number of activities on the road such as talking and sensitising communities around the roads and repainting zebra crossings.

Working with schools
Among the many victims of road accidents, at least 10 per cent are pedestrians, many of these are children. The biggest number of victims are school going children between ages of six and 16 years.

“To imagine that many of these survive malaria and various diseases only to be killed by a reckless driver,” Beyanga says.

He says one of the things they want to do in schools is teach them about the Highway Code.
It’s because of such young people that this year’s walk is aptly themed Walk of Life: Too Young To Die. The group will also be meeting scouts in Jinja.

Beyanga says that this year, they want to emphasise the involvement of leaders, the communities as well as the biggest players, the drivers themselves.
“When it comes to road safety, driver discipline has no replacement,” he says.

This walk comes right after Uganda has witnessed one of the turbulent festive seasons that claimed many people.

Beyanga however says the 2021 festive season was more turbulent than the one of 2022, however, he says, the difference is that today, there is more awareness than before.

“That was one of the biggest achievements from our walk, awareness was created, today people are more alert about road carnage than before,” he says.

He notes that before taking on the path, he may not have paid attention to road safety content as much; “and it is the same case with many of the media houses, look at the safety content we have today, compared to years ago.”

Beyanga has been joined by different well wishers, friends and companies such as Coke Cola, Plascon, Road Safety Coalitions, Jubilee Allianz Insurance and Nicole Foundation among others.

Note that
“The whole of Jinja Road is a hotspot, remember it is busy with buses and trailers coming from Kenya. We have lost two MPs on that road and it is the only road that has accidents but it is one of the most dangerous ones,”Beyanga says.

He says that none of our roads are safe because of various factors such as poor signage, demarcations, lighting and worse, in 2023, our roads are yet to embrace technology.

“A road is supposed to be talking to the user, one should know when to turn, when to go slow… our roads don’t speak to the users,” he says. Beyanga says the biggest victims of road carnage are still pedestrians.