By Watchdog reporter
Beti Olive Namisango Kamya is the current cabinet Minister for Kampala. She was appointed to office by President Yoweri Museveni on 6 June,2016.
Since the day she resumed office, things have not been that simple as she may have anticipated.
She has been involved in many controversies including forceful evictions in the city, constant fights with city Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, councilors and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director among others.
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 is the founder and president of the Uganda Federal Alliance, one of the registered political parties in the country.
She contested for president under her new party in the 2011 general elections, although she has made indications that she would not be seeking the post in the forthcoming elections.
She has opted to go back and reclaim her parliamentary seat of Rubaga North, Kampala, which she held in the 8th Parliament (2006-2011). She had stood on the Forum for the Democratic Change ticket.
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.
Beti worked at the Uganda Leather and Tanning Industries, Jinja, Nyanza Textiles Industries Uganda Breweries and Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) before she joined active politics.
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 (RIP) 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.
Kamya was married to Spencer Turwomwe, a former soldier, who passed on in 2003.Together they have six children.
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