On Saturday, June 17, 2023, hundreds of patriotic Ugandans both young and old held a 45 km hill to hill walk with an aim of raising awareness about road safety under the theme; “Safe Roads Save Lives,” and with a hash tag on various social media platforms of #TooYoungToDie.
The walk that was organized by Joseph Beyanga alias Joe Walker, a known road safety activist, attracted people from all corners of life towards a common cause of saving lives through awareness on road safety.
The walk was flagged off by the acting Director of Mulago Hospital, Dr. Rose Mary Byanyima at Sheraton hotel Kampala at exactly 6:00 am.
Byanyima while flagging off walkers said that, by creating awareness on roads lessens the number of casualties in hospitals and reduces on accident on the road.
“Creating awareness on the roads gives us less work in the hospitals since we intend to reduce on road accident victims. Many people spend a lot of productive time in hospital when they are sick and when they get out of hospital, they can never be the same level, and some of them become disabled for life,” Dr. Byanyima.
Joseph Beyanga alias Joe walker said that, the awareness is entirely on road safety.
“When you move around Kampala, there are many roads without side walks and you find pedestrians, cyclists and motorists fighting for the same space. In the end, this has caused many accidents and many people have lost their lives, while some remained disabled,” Beyanga said.
“There are roads with side walks, but with very many open manholes, leading to many people to get injured in this case. It is also important to note that many motorists don’t respect zebra crossings, the reason we are having this road safety awareness campaign for all road users to be cautious,” Beyanga added.
The 45 km planned walk had three stretches, with the first 15 km stretch named baby stretch, the 32 km called Youth stretch and the 45 km named adult stretch.
The route
The walk started at Sheraton hotel Nakasero, through Public Service in Wandegeya, via Kiira Road Police Station and then connected to Ntinda through Naguru hill.
From Ntinda, members walked to Mbuya hill through Spear Motors and headed to Bugolobi, where they had a rest and marked the end of the 15 km Baby stretch.
From Bugolobi, the participants walked to Jinja Road Police Station where they had a chat with the Traffic Police Officers who were on duty manning Traffic.
From Jinja road, the team proceeded to Kansanga through Kibuli hill, and then stretched to Bunga hill and after connected to Makindye hill where the 32 kms Youth stretch ended.
From Makindye, the walkers stretched to Namirembe hill, then to Kasubi tombs, to Makerere hill then proceeded to YMCA and finally connected back to Sheraton hotel to end the 45 km walk.
After the walk, many participants were excited for having reached their respective set targets and many vowed to do it again and again.
Brian who managed to do 45 Kms said that this was a big milestone for him.
“I have never walked more than 10 kms and I couldn’t believe that I would finish. But with resilience, I managed to walk 45 kms and here I am though the body is in pain,” Brian said.
Grace Nakanjo said that she only managed to do 20 Kms but she is excited because, apart from walking for road safety, she had other plans.
“I want to lose some weight and I also walked for health reasons, wanted to burn some calories and remain fit and will now resume my early morning walks for fitness,” Nakanjo said.
Beyanga, the organizer and Chief walker thanked participants and promised to communicate the next walking route soon.
“We have walked to Mbale, Bushenyi and have had other short walks around Kampala before,“ Beyanga noted.
The next walk is likely to be from Kampala to Fort-Portal tourism City or any other city as the organizers will have decided.
The walk was sponsored by Sheraton Hotel, NTV, KFM, Daily Monitor, Safe boda, Nicole foundation, Jubilee insurance, Allianz and Road safety Advocacy Coalition Uganda (ROSACU).
