Betty Oyella Bigombe
Betty Oyella Bigombe is a Ugandan social scientist, politician, and peace advocate born on 21 October 1952 in Amuru District. She studied at Gayaza High School, Trinity College Nabbingo, Makerere University (Bachelor of Arts in Social Science, 1974), and earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School.
Bigombe served as a Member of Parliament from 1986 to 1996 and was Uganda’s State Minister for Northern Uganda in 1988, based in Gulu. She led peace efforts with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and met its leader Joseph Kony in 1993. She was named Uganda Woman of the Year in 1993 for her peace work, though talks with Kony collapsed in 1994. After leaving Parliament, she joined the World Bank in 1997 as a Senior Social Scientist and later worked as a consultant. She also supported peace mediation with the Carter Center (1999–2000) and led a new LRA peace initiative from 2004 to 2005.
In 2011 she returned to Ugandan politics, winning the Amuru District Women’s Constituency seat and serving as State Minister for Water Resources until June 2014. She then rejoined the World Bank as Senior Director for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (2014–2017). In 2021 she became Uganda’s Ambassador to Malaysia, and in 2024 Makerere University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Laws.
She is married (formerly to Uganda’s ambassador to Japan) and has two children, Pauline and Emmanuel. She speaks Acholi and English, along with Swahili and Japanese, and is a member of Women Mediators across the Commonwealth.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:41 (CET).