Nakabuye on touring East Africa twice, on a bike

By Abdul-Nasser Ssemugabi

When a group of 15 cyclists reached Kasese town, barely 48 hours to the Rwenzori Marathon on August 24, one slender body sporting a red helmet, black veil, nose ring and a multi-coloured jersey, stood out like the national flag she was waving as she leisurely rode before she parked.

Few could believe that Shamal Nakabuye had done the entire 360km or slightly more, in three days, just like the men. Yet to Nakabuye, whose mileage is in the tens of thousands and the only Ugandan woman to tour East Africa twice, on a bike, “this was nothing!’ Nakabuye tried bicycles when she was only five— around the time her father died.

“We rode our neighbours’ bicycles in turns,” she recalled. “There was also a man who gave me his bicycle whenever he returned home.” Read more

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