President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said he is praying that he and First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni live to 100 years, as he marked her 78th birthday with a personal message reflecting on family, exile, the Resistance struggle and their reunion in Nairobi more than five decades ago.
Museveni said reaching 100 would allow them to witness what he called “the birth of the East African Federation,” which he described as Africa’s insurance against future domination and marginalisation.
“I pray to God to get us to 100 years respectively so that we, among the other good things, see the birth of the East African Federation,” Museveni wrote.
In the message titled “From Omugurusi Ampa to Maama Giinga,” Museveni thanked God for Janet’s life, saying the family was grateful for the years she has lived, including the difficult period after she lost her father, Mzee Edward Kataaha, in 1955.
He said although they both came from Ntungamo and had studied at Kyamate in 1958, Uganda’s troubled politics later separated them.
Museveni recalled that they met again on Christmas Day in 1972 outside the Inter-Continental Hotel in Nairobi, while he was operating from Tanzania in the fight against Idi Amin.
He said he had recently survived the failed September 17, 1972 attack in Mbarara, where, according to him, 330 fighters attacked on that axis but only 46 returned by evening.
Museveni said he was preparing for another phase of the struggle when he saw the Kazzora family, including Janet, leaving the hotel after lunch.
“We had just parked in the Inter-Continental car park when I saw the Kazzoras, including Maama, entering their cars after they had had lunch at the hotel. I got out of our car and greeted them,” he wrote.
He described the meeting as the moment that made it possible for him to build a family, even while still in exile and involved in the Resistance.
“It is that accidental and miraculous re-connection that enabled me to have a family even when I was still in the risky life of exile and the Resistance. Praised be the Lord,” he said.
Museveni said the reunion gave him four children and fifteen grandchildren, and added that he is now looking forward to great-grandchildren.
The President also said Janet recently survived a serious health scare on March 21, 2026, and was recovering well after medical treatment.
“God, using good doctors, saved Maama’s life and she is now recovering well,” he wrote.
Museveni praised Janet for holding the family together during the 1981 to 1986 bush war, when she was in exile with the children while he was in the bush.
He also pointed to her work with UWESO, her contribution to NRM politics in Ntungamo and her religious work.
The message was signed: “Yoweri K. Museveni, Omugurusi-Ampa.”
