Editorial Team/Staff Writers
When President Museveni reappointed his wife Janet to cabinet last month, many expected the usual procedure of vetting and swearing-in to follow.
But Mrs Museveni, who is the Minister of Education and Sports designate, missed the vetting and the swearing-in ceremony, which was held on Monday. As OJ-UGANDA has previously reported, she has not appeared in public since March 21.
She did not attend her husband’s inauguration on May 12 and okuhingira (introduction of a spouse to-be) for her granddaughter, Sasi Karugire, in April.
While leading prayers at the inauguration in Kololo, the Rt Rev Sheldon Mwesigwa, the Bishop of Ankole Diocese, said the First Lady was recovering, without going into detail.
Lieutenant General Proscovia Nalweyiso also told content creator Ruth Kalibbala that President Museveni had told a cabinet meeting that his wife was recovering.
No official explanation has been given, and OJ-UGANDA’s previous attempts to speak to the Media Centre, the official clearing house for government communication, have been fruitless. No one is willing to speak to the press about her.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, did not even mention her name when he said that two ministerial nominees had not been vetted. The other is Dr Lawrence Muganga, the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University.
The appointment—and her failure to appear before the committee—represent the most consequential chapter yet in an absence that OJ-UGANDA has been tracking since early April.
What began as a prolonged disappearance from public duties has now become an issue with direct constitutional implications.
What is new
President Museveni reappointed the First Lady. She was also expected to appear before Parliament’s appointments committee as part of the confirmation process that all ministerial nominees must complete. She did not appear.
Parliament’s appointments committee can conduct vetting through video link, and it did the same for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Norbert Mao, who was out of the country, according to the Daily Monitor.
The appointments committee was reportedly open to the same arrangement for Mrs Museveni. No such arrangement, however, appears to have materialised.
What has not changed
Since March 21, there has been no public statement from the government or the Ministry of Education and Sports explaining her absence from official duties. Her X account, previously active with regular ministerial updates, has remained dormant. OJ-UGANDA has not independently verified claims, circulating since late March, that she was flown out of the country for medical treatment.
The mainstream press asks the question
Yesterday’s edition of the Daily Monitor carried a headline asking where Janet Museveni is. What is notable is that the question— first raised publicly by this website more than two months ago—has now reached the front pages of a national newspaper. It is the second time the paper has reported about Mrs Museveni’s absence from public view. The first was about her absence from her husband’s inauguration.
The questions that can no longer be deferred
When OJ-UGANDA first reported on Mrs Museveni’s absence in April, the central question was why a minister had disappeared from public view without explanation. That question remains unanswered. And there is another: Why did the minister miss the vetting and the swearing-in?
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