Ugandan First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni tells about her past

By Doreen Ochido

Kenya: I found myself reading the autobiography of the First Lady of Uganda, Her Excellency Mrs Janet Kataaha Museveni.

Aptly titled My Life’s Journey, this is her story, in her own words, from the period of her childhood, through teenage, to the uncertainties of young adulthood and her eventual maturity into a woman of strength and character worth emulating.

She weaves a story filled with history, a rich culture, family values and personal struggles to show just how she got to where she is today. I say that behind every successful woman there is a story.

The temptation would be to attribute a woman’s success to a male figure in her life, more so where this male figure is the President of a sovereign republic. But this is one book that shows that a woman can be successful in her own right, building on experiences from the earlier stages of life and not just from the time that she meets that influential man.

 One thing that comes out strongly in the book, and that we should learn to embrace, is the importance of African culture, even in the modern world with all its technological innovation. There is the need to embrace the beauty of the motherland with all its perceived shortcomings, especially in light of developments in the Western world.

 It is evident that the First Lady of Uganda has had a taste of both worlds. More specifically, the traditional African way of living as she grew up in Irenga where the boys would learn to graze the cows while the girls would be responsible for taking care of the home to the modern way of life she experienced when she left her village for the city and when she left Uganda to study abroad, during her time in exile with her children in Sweden and in her many travels after assuming her role as First Lady.

 The First Lady’s story begins in the land of Irenga, where she grew up from the time of her birth in 1948. She paints a picture of a childhood that she describes as idyllic, where everyone understood their roles, and great importance is placed in cattle rearing, a trait shared by the First Lady’s husband, His Excellency Yoweri Museveni, who also hails from the same home area.

Indeed, a lot can be said about the Bahima of Uganda with their magnificent indigenous cattle, but it will not be said here. Sadly though, she experiences loss at an early age when her father, and later, her brother pass on. Years later, her mother also passes away after suffering an illness. These sad experiences earlier on in her life help her learn to remain strong.

First Lady lived part of her early married life in exile in Kenya and Tanzania, and later in Sweden, during a time of political uncertainty without knowing what would befall her husband, who was back in Uganda, doing what he always very solemnly refers to as ‘fighting Amin’. 

They got married in 1973 and are parents to four children, Muhoozi, Natasha, Patience and Diana. The book in general is also cognizant of the fact that as much as we are African, we would do well to marry culture with modernity so that we reap the benefits both sides have to offer, as the First Lady has proved only too well can be done.

— The writer is a student at the Kenya School of Law, Nairobi