KAMPALA – Kampala Affairs minister Betty Kamya has dismissed claims that she has clashed with a newly appointed presidential adviser on Kampala Catherine Kusasira.
There were reports that Ms. Kamya had refused to meet singer Kusasira after the latter called a meeting to chat a way forward for the management of Kampala ahead of the 2021 elections.
But the minister says Kusasira is her personal friend and they have never disagreed on anything.
“I don’t foresee any collusion with Kusasira. We’ve been friends long before this appointment. We shall work well together,” Ms. Kamya said in an interview on Wednesday, November 13, 2019.
She also supported Mr. Museveni’s decision to appoint her and several socialites as his advisors.
“I don’t want to discuss Kusasira. However, by the time the president notices you, it means you’ve worked your way out of the crowd. That’s a general rule of thumb. I have no problem with that because it’s a prerogative for him to pick people whom he thinks will deliver his objectives of the time. Everybody should be calm and trust the appointing authority and his ability to balance the different interests. They should do their work because the laws that creative different offices exist and the responsibilities are therein,” she added.
The minister also dismissed claims that the opposition is giving President Museveni, an act which has forced him to seek out leaders from the ghetto.
“All this hullabaloo is only here in Kampala. I don’t think it’s the opposition giving government sleepless nights, what would be giving us sleepless nights is this issue of unemployment,” she said.
“You need the vote to implement your vision. The two go together. When this term started, it was to get Uganda from a peasantry society to middle-income status. There is a time when it is Boda Boda politics, then market and taxi politics. Ghetto politics is too high because this is where politics ought to be. When we’re thinking of raising the society from low to high income, the ghetto is what we’re talking about,” she added.
Ms. Kamya also said Bobi Wine has failed to attract NRM members to his People Power movement.
“Tell me one person who has left NRM to join Bobi Wine? People have left FDC, DP and other parties to join Bobi Wine, this shows that it’s the same people running around. I don’t see a significant shift of the business community, I only see the same old actors in opposition politics (minus me) running around in circles,” she said.