Nairobi News

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s son-in-law, Edwin Karugire has recounted his experience of meeting the Head of State to ask for his blessing to marry his daughter Natasha Museveni.

In a video shared on TikTok, Karugire revealed he had prepared a script word for word on what he would tell President Museveni but still had jitters in his body.

While it is ever a challenging time for a man to meet the father of the girl he intends to marry, Karugire’s experience was not any different.

He begins, “As you all know it can be a daunting task because I was the first intruder into his home. But I wasn’t afraid because he was my father too and the father of our generation. So, on the appointed day, I went to Nakasero, where he lives and he was in the living room with Natasha and Mama (First Lady Mama Janet Museveni) so this was a good sign for me, safety in numbers.”

However, both Natasha and Mama Janet left the room making it awkward for Karugire who admits he was left alone with President Museveni who was watching a World War II documentary in silence.

“But luckily I had practiced my presentation. I had my script memorised so I started talking but he raised his hand and told me to be quiet as he was watching his documentary. That was when I started sweating. After the longest 30 minutes of my life during which in the documentary were bullets and bombs, I felt that it was me being attacked,” he says.

After a while, President Museveni asked, “Do you drink alcohol? By this time I was incoherent and dehydrated, so I gave him all the possible answers at once. ‘I don’t, I used to but I’m stopping,’ then he told me how drinking alcohol makes one unconscious and he has never been unconscious and that is why he is strong. He said he was even stronger than me and he graciously invited me to fight him if I doubted it. But I politely declined.”

Additionally, he told Karugire a story of how his dad (Karugire’s) convinced him to go to bar. “He (my dad) convinced him (President Museveni) by telling him it was the best place for debate. Because the conversations were sweeter in the bar. But he said he had a bad time because people were speaking loudly from close quarters, and were spitting. So you can imagine this was 50 years before corona social distancing measures were not in place and he was concerned.”

Though Mr Museveni accepted, he faced another challenge talking to Natasha’s brother – Muhoozi Kainerugaba. “Eventually, he gave his consent to the marriage, and I quickly left the room to avoid the new line of interrogation. So when I left, I told Natasha that we had a green light and she was very excited. First, she called Muhoozi, who was out of the country in one of the military courses, and in the middle of the conversation, she said, ‘Hold on and talk to Edwin.’ So she gave me the phone and I said ‘Hello’ but there was silence. I thought it was bad network connections so I said ‘Hello’ Then I heard heavy breathing on the other side and said, ‘Lord I cannot do this again.’ So the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

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