Natasha Museveni Karugire, one of the daughters of President Yoweri Museveni stunned television viewers when she recently revealed that her ambition, at one time, was to become a nun.
While the revelation was astonishing to the vast majority of the viewers who watched her interview with Cedric Babu on UBC TV, spirituality has been strongly manifested in the first family over the years.
Natasha’s sister Patience Rwabogo is a pastor and their mother, Janet Kataha, has occasionally used God to justify her choices in life and her husband’s continued stay in power.
Natasha Museveni says she had the ambition of becoming a religious sister when she was in her elementary stage of education. But she also told Babu that her choices, like any other human being, would change from one level to another.
For instance, she also thought about becoming a missionary, then a lawyer.
It was towards the end of ‘O’ Level that she realized that she was strongly attached to the arts.
“… then, at some point I really understood that I was inclined towards arts,” she said, adding that “by the time I was doing my ‘O’ Level, I became very interested in fashion” which went on to pursue, even doing a course in the field at university.
In 1998, Natasha graduated from the American College in London with a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design and Marketing.
Asked how her parents reacted to her choice of career, she said: “… I thank God that, I think, they (parents) are very enlightened. Because that was quite some years back and they were supportive.”
“They saw my strengths and they saw my struggles I think,” she went on. “My father especially was very supportive; when I told him, I wanted to do fashion, he blessed me.”
She is, however, quick to reveal that she’s starting to wonder if she’ll be able to show that kind of support when her children pick ‘questionable’ careers.
“And I pray that I can be the same kind of parent because I see myself as quite an old school mother: when I hear my children talk about music and stuff, I’m like… what!”
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Joining the fashion business
When Natasha Museveni came back from London, in 1998, she opened a fashion label, a move she sometimes thinks she made ill-prepared.
“I always wonder about the decision, was it the right thing to do at the time? because I came back home and tried to set up a business straight out of university… it was very, very difficult because I did not have any experience.”
She says staying in the U.K. to do some bit of internship could have saved her the difficulties she encountered since, as she confessed, she is more of a creative and not a “business type”.
“I wondered if I had stayed and, you know, interned and learnt how it works and the business side,” she said, adding: “I really struggled.”
Her fashion label was initially called House of Kaine before she rebranded to J & Kainembabazi, her maiden name.
In 2018, Natasha Museveni partnered with her cousin, Esteri Mugurwa Akandwanaho, daughter of Salim Saleh to launch a film production company, Isaiah60 Productions, which has already produced its first move, ‘27 Guns’.
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