Blind Fazira Kauma beats odds to become deputy mayor

In August 2005 Fazira Kauma, had just completed her diploma course in Business Studies at Tororo College of Commerce. Like any other 23 year old, she was looking forward to getting employment when disaster struck.

She lost her sight.

But she had had challenges with her sight for years, in fact, she had visited various hospitals but the situation kept deteriorating.

“On one of my journeys to Mengo Hospital I was told that there was no way around my condition. The specialist told me that it was genetically driven and that it would soon turn into total blindness. I was devastated,” Kauma says.

Kauma had two choices, she could either wallow in self-pity or accept her new reality and adapt, she chose latter.

The 38-year-old has since risen through the ranks of the politics to become the first female deputy mayor of Jinja City.

Kauma, the councillor representing persons with disabilities, was picked from a pool of 17 other councillors by the newly elected mayor of Jinja, Peter Okocha Kasolo.

She may have been a surprise for many, yet those that have worked closely with her, always knew it was only a matter of time before she made it to the top.

Political journey

Kauma’s entry into politics was dramatic. It started when she met the late Paul Bulenzi, then, he used to run an organisation that offered services to people with disabilities.

He introduced her to the different groups of people like her, many of whom turned out to be majority of the voters for the position in the constituency.

Belenzi even bankrolled most of her campaign – she later learnt that he had fallen out with the person that occupied the office and was willing to go an extra mile to help Kauma unseat her.

Winning in 2016 though came with sacrifices on her part, for instance, she had to relocate from Kampala, where she lived at the time to Jinja to be closer to her constituency.

Deputy Mayor Kauma

Kauma believes the right policies have enabled her rise through the ranks.

“How would (I ever have amounted to anything if the government had not promoted the rights of people with disabilities?” she wonders.

She thinks that her appointment was down to her leadership experience and education that compelled Kasolo to name her his deputy.

According to Kasolo, Kauma challenges him in various ways, for instance, education qualification. He says, despite challenges with her vision, she pushed herself by studying more than many people in the council.

“I am now forced to consider going for further studies,” he says.

Kauma initially graduated with a diploma in Business Studies from Tororo College of Commerce, she however, went on and studied Public Admnistration, Community Based Rehabilitation from Makerere and Kyambogo universities respectively. She also graduated with a bachelors’ degree in social work and social administration and later a masters’degree in social sector planning from Kampala University.

That versatility has been evident in the manner in which she has gone about her service to the PWDs. She realised that some types of disability like albinism and sickle cells had been relegated to the periphery during planning and budgeting processes and moved to address those gaps.

“This was as a result of lack of awareness about these types of disability among the policy makers,” she explained.

She subsequently launched a campaign to register all people living with Albinism in Busoga region and helped them to form an umbrella organisation, the Source of the Nile of People Living with albinism (SNUPA), through which donor organisations like Action on Disability and Development (ADD), Advantage Africa, Disability Rights Fund are assisting them.

Kauma has also been instrumental in the opening in Buwenge Town Council of a special clinic for people living with sickle cells.

PWD ambitions

Something for her people

She now hopes that her experiences in the PWD and NGO world can count for something as Jinja charters its way in the new waters that the city is.