In a country where the slightest connection to State House is synonymous with prestige, power and resources, it is incomprehensible that someone so close to the president could have little name-recognition, let alone avoid the national spotlight with much success.
Until last Saturday when she was injured in a nasty road accident which killed one person, George Agaba, a former KCCA director for Physical Planning, not much was known about Dr Violet Kajubiri Froelich, the younger sister of President Museveni.
Rescuers who rushed to the accident scene at Nyamitanga, a few kilometers out of Mbarara town, had no idea that one of the victims was the president’s only sister.
Many of Museveni’s close relatives are known publicly and are involved in government in one way or another. His wife, Janet, is the minister for Education and Sports while his son Maj Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is the commander of the elite Special Forces Command (SFC). Another of Museveni’s relatives who is deeply involved in state affairs is Salim Saleh, the president’s younger brother.
Therefore; with such a tightly-knit powerful family, one would expect Dr Kajubiri to command huge influence in her brother’s government. However, she has kept at the fringes; holding positions that don’t expose her to the limelight; the latest being a member of the Education Service Commission (ESC); a position she was appointed to in 2010.
WHO IS KAJUBIRI?
In his book, Sowing the Mustard Seed (Revised edition, Page 3), President Museveni says Kajubiri was born in 1949.
“We do not know the actual day or month but we are sure of the year because when she was born, the Anglican Church was celebrating 50 years of being in Uganda and she was named Violet Kajubiri, meaning born around the jubilee…”
While eulogizing his mother, who died in 2001, President Museveni said Kajubiri was struck by polio in 1955. As such his father was unenthusiastic about taking her to school reasoning that it was bad investment. The burden fell on the shoulders of the mother, who believed in education of the girl child and as such, solely saw Kajubiri through school.
EDUCATION
Kajubiri holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Makerere University, which she obtained in the early seventies. She also holds a concurrent diploma in Education majoring in biology and chemistry also from Makerere University.
While working at Makerere University as a special assistant in the department of zoology, Kajubiri got a scholarship from Germany where she went to Hohenheim University for her master’s and PhD in zoology.
Since then, she has lived in Uganda and Germany, where she is also citizen. In her book, My Life’s Journey, Janet Museveni, says Kajubiri was married to German national Hilmer Froelich and the couple has four children.
WORK HISTORY
According to the ESC website, Kajubiri worked as a consultant for the state of Lower Saxony (Germany) on Education and Development from 2008 to 2009. In 2005, she was a member of the visitation committee that Museveni appointed to inquire into all public universities.
The committee produced a report in 2007 that recommended reforms but they were never implemented. In 2001, Kajubiri was also a consultant for Protestant Development Aid in Germany, where she worked until 2004.
Other organizations where she has worked include the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Kajubiri has also been a member of different boards in Uganda and in Germany.
Among them are; National Environment Management Authority (Nema), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-Int) and Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (Uwec), among others.
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