Betty Kamya the lady of multiple faces

By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye 

Betty Kamya 

Betty Kamya is now the minister for Kampala City Authority in President Museveni’s fifth term, such a controversial appointment given her last ten year political life.

Doubts and rumor about her  shaky allegiance  to the political opposition started early this year after she started criticizing her most recent boss Dr Kizza Besigye’s approach of defiance against President Yoweri Museveni’s government.

But who is this outspoken woman of surprises:

She became a household name in the 2001 elections as the spokesperson of the Reform Agenda, a political group formed by Dr. Kizza Besigye months before the elections.

She remained the face of Reform Agenda and later Forum for Democratic Change party at the time when a number of leaders of the group went into exile, including its leader Kizza Besigye and spokesperson Anne Mugisha

From 2005 until 2010, she served as the Special Envoy of the FDC president Kizza Besigye, at that time.

 In 2009, a disagreement on who was to replace party chairman Sulaiman Kiggundu who had passedon, put Kamya on a collision course with some party officials. She had prepared to replace him, but the party later picked John Butime for the post.

 In January 2010, she quit FDC and formed Uganda Federal Alliance, becoming its first president.

Betty Kamya contested for Uganda presidency under Uganda Federal Alliace, her new party in the 2011 general elections and lost to the incumbent, her former boss president Yower Museveni. She opted to go back and reclaim her parliamentary seat of Rubaga North, Kampala, which she held in the 8^th Parliament (2006-2011). She had stood on the Forum for the Democratic Change ticket but lost to the Democratic Party candidate Moses Kasibante. Moses reclaimed the victory after demanding for a recount where results had given a victory vote to her.

Kamya was married to Spencer Turwomwe, a former soldier, who passed on in 2003.

Born in Nakuru, Kenya of a Ugandan father George Wilson Kamya and Kenyan mother Margaret Wairimu Kamya, Beti is the fourth born in the family of nine siblings. Kamya’s family came back to Uganda in 1961 when Beti was six years old.

Beti attended St. Hellen’s Primary School in Mbarara, Wanyange Girls’ and King’s College Budo, before going to Makerere University, where she graduated with Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Betty worked at the Uganda Leather and Tanning industry in Jinja, Nyanza Textiles Industries, Uganda Breweries and Wild Life Authority Education Center before joining active politics.