Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda

Janet Museveni (née Kainembabazi, born June 24, 1948) is the First Lady of Uganda since May 1986. She is married to Yoweri Museveni, with whom she has four children.

Janet Kainembabazi Kataaha Museveni was born in Bwongyera village in Kajara county, Ntungamo district, Uganda to Mr and Mrs Edward Kataaha. She attended Kyamate primary school and Bweranyagye Girls Secondary School. After secondary school, she lived with a cousin, John Wycliffe Kazzora, who financed her overseas studies. She studied Political Science, Philosophy and English Literature in Wales, and on returning to Uganda got a job as a ground hostess with the then East African Airways.

Janet Museveni went into exile with her husband in 1971, when Idi Amin toppled the Obote I regime in a military coup. When Idi Amin’s regime fell from power in April 1979, she moved back to Uganda from Tanzania where she had been living in exile with her husband Yoweri Museveni.

In February 1981 when Yoweri Museveni launched his guerrilla war against the government of President Milton Obote, Janet Museveni and her children re-located to Nairobi, Kenya, where they lived with family friends until 1983. In 1983, they moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, and stayed there until May 1986, four months after Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army had seized power in Kampala.

The four children of Janet Museveni are:

Muhoozi Kainerugaba Museveni – Born in 1974, Lieutenant Colonel in the UPDF & Commander of Special Forces.
Natasha Museveni Karugire – Born in 1976, Fashion Designer & Consultant. Married to Edwin Karugire. Private Secretary to the President of Uganda for Household Affairs.
Patience Museveni Rwabwogo – Born in 1978, Pastor of Covenant Nations Church, Buziga, Kampala, Married to Odrek Rwabwogo.
Diana Museveni Kamuntu – Born in 1980, Married to Geoffrey Kamuntu.

Janet Museveni founded the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO), a private relief agency in late 1986, which she said was shaped by her experience as a refugee. She became involved with the HIV/AIDS campaigns in Uganda all through the 1990s.

In November 2005, she announced that she would seek the parliamentary seat of Ruhama in the February 2006 Ugandan general elections. She contested the seat against the candidate for Forum for Democratic Change, Augustine Ruzindana, and won overwhelmingly.

On February 16, 2009, Janet Museveni was appointed Minister of State for Karamoja by her husband, President Yoweri Museveni.