Twenty-one year old Maureen Nakajja Kwagala — the only female cyclist in the group that spent over a month cycling though East Africa to preach integration – surprised both the team and followers of the tour when she wouldn’t let her gender or cycling inexperience stop her from taking part in the nearly 3,000km expedition.

Before the tour, she had never even pushed a bicycle, let alone ride one. But one morning in June, as the cyclists were getting ready for a training session in preparation for the expedition, Maureen showed up at Campfire Logs Guild offices and said she wanted to join in.

The Guild leaders exchanged looks, wondering if the young woman knew what she was signing up for.

“Okay, what’s the longest distance you have cycled?” the group’s trainer Ibrahim Nsubuga asked her.

She said she had never ridden a bicycle but believed she had the spirit to do so regardless of her experience.

“Never discourage anyone who makes progress no matter how slow they are,” she said.

The Guild leaders were not sure they could train this young woman who had never been on a bicycle, and then allow her to cycle through the region.

“Her first training was to learn how to push a bike,” said tour captain Crispus Byaruhanga. “And this was on the second week to the closure of our training. Her longest training was cycling 149km from Kampala to Mubende,” he added.

Some of the more experienced cyclists failed the fitness test but according to trainer Nsubuga, Kwagala learnt and quickly adapted to the dynamics of the iron horse. By the end of the training sessions, she had developed the capacity to cycle 3,000km.

“I hated bikes, even if someone gave me a lift on a bicycle, I wouldn’t accept. But I wanted to be part of the tour because I want East Africa to unite. This is something I will keep doing until the EAC is truly one,’ she said. 

On August 1, Kwagala was raring to go. She survived a bout of malaria but her most scary moment was an accident she had while descending the Bugarama hills on the way to the Burundi-Rwanda border post of Kanyaru.

The Campfire Logs Guild head John Balongo said the team thought she had been killed. She somersaulted three times in the air “but we found her smiling down the hill.”

Does she recall this experience?

“Of course I do, but I think people who were behind me saw it better. I remember seeing a motorbike parked on the road, not even on the roadside. It was in the middle of the road. I knocked it, flew over and knocked my head on a stone. Thank God I had a helmet on, but it also broke, and I got a few cuts,” she recalled.

In Nairobi, Uganda’s High Commission to Kenya Angelina Wapakhabulo was excited to see a young woman donning the blue rider’s uniform and even in Bujumbura and Kigali where the cyclists were hosted by the Ugandan embassies and EAC Affairs Ministries, Kwagala was the toast of the group.

Born in 1995 in Kampala, Kwagala, a cosmetologist by training, loves singing, and now her new found love is riding for charity. She plans to do more riding expeditions in future for EAC unity and for the vulnerable children of Uganda.

She wants more women to ride for charity and so far she has enlisted three female cyclists – two from Uganda and one from Kenya – to cycle with her on future expeditions.

The only girl in a family of three siblings, her family describe her as having stubborn streak. But her mother supports her decisions and this meant backing her by investing Ush260,000 ($78) of her savings to buy a used bike for the EAC tour.

In social media posts, cyclists and followers of the tour described Maureen as the “super lady” and “our heroine among heroes” who deserves a medal.

Others like the Guild’s leader Balongo said, “Maureen is not a human being” in praise of her courage and some of the decisions she makes in contrast with her laidback character. For instance, some 140km towards the Tanzania-Burundi border, one of the cyclists, Bonney Sekitoleko, hit a pothole and his bike was badly damaged. It was getting late, with no village or town in sight to have it repaired.

“It was hilly, and it was getting late. So I stopped a police truck for a lift. We put Maureen on it so that Bonney could ride her bike to the next town where we would find her,” narrated Balongo.

But barely two kilometres ahead, Maureen abandoned the truck and waited for the team, a decision that angered the group leader, Balongo.

“I wanted to ride my bike. I was hungry and tired, but I still wanted to ride. I just loved my bike,” she said.   

The month-long tour also came with a heavy price – she lost her job at an upmarket Kampala beauty salon.

“I lost my job. My boss couldn’t keep my position open for me all the time I was away. Even if I get another job, I will ride again in next year’s tour. Once the EAC is fully integrated, there will be jobs. That’s why I am riding,” she said.