I am not Janet Museveni’s brother - Gen Tumukunde addresses long-held public myth

Gender, Labour and Social Development minister Gen Henry Tumukunde has dismissed a long-standing claim that he is a brother of First Lady Janet Museveni.

This false rumour, he said, has spread widely that it once followed him onto the presidential campaign trail.

Tumukunde addressed the claim last week during the Sam Kalega Njuba Memorial Lecture organised by the Uganda Law Society.

He recalled campaigning in Lango during his unsuccessful 2021 presidential bid when the late Cecilia Ogwal invited him to meet a group of prominent leaders from the sub-region.

Tumukunde said he believed the meeting had gone well until one participant raised the claim that he was Janet Museveni’s brother and questioned why people in Lango should support him.

“I spoke and spoke; but as I was leaving and winding up to what I would have called a very successful day, one of the members put his hand up and said, ‘But you people, this man is a brother of Janet Museveni. What are we going into?’”

“Think about this. First of all, I don’t think I can be a brother of Janet Museveni and nobody gets to know. She is too important to own brothers who are in obscurity,” he said.

The former presidential candidate used the encounter to bemoan what he described as the difficulty of building national politics in a country where perceptions about family and ethnic identity can influence political choices.

He said the reaction in Lango particularly struck him because his own family had supported former president Milton Obote and the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).

“My father, a peasant, had voted for Milton Obote in the spirit of UPC. Now you can imagine…given the circumstances; there are people [Langi who are Obote’s tribesmen] who would understand the importance of building a national spirit and this is what I receive at the end,” Tumukunde said.

Tumukunde ran for president as an independent candidate in the January 14, 2021 election after breaking ranks with the government in which he had previously served.

The retired army general had previously served in several senior government and security positions, including as Security minister, before challenging President Yoweri Museveni for the country's top office.

According to the Electoral Commission's final results, Tumukunde received 51,392 votes, representing 0.50 per cent of valid votes cast. Museveni won with 6,042,898 votes, or 58.38 per cent, while Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu came second with 3,631,437 votes, or 35.08 per cent. 

Tumukunde has since returned to the NRM. In 2025, he contested the party primaries for Rukungiri Municipality and won the NRM flag after securing 4,542 votes. The NRM Election Disputes Tribunal later upheld his victory following a challenge that included questions about his previous presidential run outside the party.