Who is Auma Hellen Wandera? Flash Uganda Media looks at her biography, age, husband, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with Dickson Richards Wandera (father) and Betty Nekesa Afuro (mother), Jane Nabulindo Kwoba, National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party, Mama Busia, the early life and education of the current Member of Parliament representing Busia District in Uganda.
Auma Hellen Wandera also commonly referred to as Mama Busia is a politician and entrepreneur from Uganda.
She is the current Busia Woman Member of Parliament.
Auma Hellen was also elected to serve on the Committee of Presidential Affairs in the eleventh Ugandan parliament.
Auma is also a member of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party.
Early Life and Education
Auma Hellen Wandera was born on December 12, 1997, in Busia District, Eastern Uganda to Dickson Richards Wandera (father) and Betty Nekesa Afuro (mother).
She is the fourth born in a family of seven children; four girls and three boys. Her father is a headmaster and her mother is the Buyuya Village chairperson of Masafu Town Council in Busia District and also a businesswoman.
She studied her primary at Busia Parents Primary School where she sat for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
She then joined Great Obrem Memorial in Tororo District for her O’level studies and went on to receive her A-level studies at St. Peters Naalya (Spena International) where she studied Literature, Economics, Divinity and sub-math (DEL/S).
Auma Hellen then joined Kyambogo University in 2016 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Social Science degree in 2019.
During her education journey, Auma had to plough the resident’s gardens to raise extra money to top up on the one her father was paying for her school fees.
In her Senior Two holidays, she began to vend tomatoes and started a stall where she dealt in more vegetables until her senior four when she had saved up enough money to venture into exporting clothes and bags from Nairobi, Kenya.
Her mother supported her as she set up a Boutique in Busia and delved more into the business throughout her A-level. She only stopped when she had to join campus due to the circumstances around transferring the business to Kampala.
Auma then changed business and in her second year at Kyambogo University, she started to trade fish at Banda market since she was an evening student. She would deep-fry the fish supplied by her mother and sell them to her classmates.
In her final year, Auma stopped vending fish in Banda towards her graduation and returned to Busia after graduating.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Auma Hellen Wandera set off on her political journey after completing University when she returned to her home district and realized there was a need to make things better for her people.
She also believed that her decision to become a leader was revealed to her by God in several dreams from Senior four, six and also while at campus.
In the 2020 NRM Parliamentary Primaries for the position of Woman MP Busia District, Auma Hellen emerged victorious and defeated all her other opponents.
In the 2021 general elections, she also emerged victorious replacing Jane Nabulindo Kwoba as the Woman Member of Parliament for Busia District in the eleventh Parliament.
Achievements and Awards
Auma Hellen Wandera was named among the most influential and outstanding women in Uganda in 2021.
She received two medals in the 2021 East Africa Inter-Parliamentary Games in Arusha, Tanzania. Uganda emerged victorious in athletics during these games and she had represented Uganda in the 1500m race.
Hon. Auma Hellen Wandera is the youngest Member of Parliament in the 11th Ugandan Parliament after being elected at the age of twenty-three years.
Controversies
After a vote recount, Ms. Hellen Auma Wandera was named the victor of the NRM primary in Busia District.
According to the initial results, Ms. Sharon Nabwire received 30,747 votes, followed by Ms. Fiona Nakku with 28,480 and Ms. Auma with 27,000 votes.
The other candidates were Teddy Auma with 2,670 votes, Ms. Lilian Taaka with 2,299 votes, Ms. Esther Busingye Wafula with 5,084, Ms. Grace Nyakecho with 4,089, Ms. Nina Nekesa with 8,906 votes.
The winner, Ms. Nabwire, received 15,444, or about half of the votes that had been awarded to her in the initial count, while Ms. Auma, who had received 18,182 votes, came in second with 16,223 votes.
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