By Hanning Mbabazi
Kampala: Uganda Federal Alliance Party president Betty Olive Namisango Kamya has resigned. This followed an extraordinary meeting of the National Executive Committee of Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) held on Thursday at Mamerito Hotel in Bweyogerere.
Top on the agenda of the meeting was to solve the leadership crisis in the party, following the appointment of Kamya as Minister-in-Charge of Kampala. After the meeting, Kamya told the press that she had stepped aside and relinquished her powers to the Vice President Boniface Oniba Ekanya.
Kamya said she had decided to relinquish powers because the position of President requires a lot of commitment.
The former Rubaga North legislator is the founder of UFA and has been party president since its formation in 2009. In 2016, she was appointed Minister for Kampala. However, this did not go down well with some UFA members.
The acting General Secretary Kennedy Oluma said the party was in a leadership crisis thus was necessary for Kamya to step aside and let other committee members take up office. Other members also welcomed Kamya’s move to step aside since she was not offering ample time to the party.
In March 2017, UFA leadership threatened to take disciplinary action against the opposition party’s president, Beti Kamya, who currently serves President Museveni’s government as minister for Kampala.
UFA accused Kamya, the party’s founding president, of neglecting her presidential duties in the party, making public utterances different from what the party believes in and acting in contempt of its organs.
Party officials pointed out that the move was not to condemn an individual but to enable them to run the party efficiently.
Since her appointment to cabinet as minister for Kampala by president Museveni, Kamya has given less time to UFA, a party she founded and has made statements in support of President Museveni, changing from her earlier critical stance.
Oluma called Kamya’s appointment a means to cripple the party, “which we detest.”
During the meeting, Boniface who has been the Party Vice President was appointed Acting President.
Oniba said the new appointment was more of a meagre formalization since he had already been acting as president. He, however, added that with the new appointment he would streamline the party and plan for the next general elections.
