By Mulengera Reporters
This Sunday, thousands converged at Covenant Hill Maya (off Masaka Road) where President Yoweri and Janet Museveni’s daughter Patience Rwabwogo was consecrated a Pentecostal Bishop. This makes her the first Ugandan woman to ever be formally consecrated Bishop.
The venue for the glamorous event, which was graced and led by a group of international evangelists led by Dr. Bishop Dr. LaDonna C. Osborn (an American preacher), is the new headquarters for Covenant Nations Church (CNC), which Patience founded and has ministered for the last 20 years.
After delivering a powerful and insightful speech, Patience’s husband Odrek Rwabwogo (as was directed by Stephen Asiimwe who was the day’s MC), called upon the President to come and address the congregation. Janet, the new Bishop’s understandably proud mother, was to come last with a closing prayer. But saying there was need to fast-track and quickly end the function to enable her go home and rest, President Museveni preferred that Janet delivers her prayer (which summarized and thanked God for their family journey and Uganda’s too) first.
His speech, which he strictly shortened in order to avoid hurting his dear wife Janet who he said isn’t supposed to be kept there sitting for too long, was delivered after the First Lady’s prayer session, which lasted toughly 15 minutes.
Unable to hide her joy, Janet thanked God for the transformation her spouse, children, the family and Uganda had registered in the last 40 years. She referred to the political instability that defined the pre-1986 Uganda and went on to enumerate the challenges like HIV-Aids and the rebel groups Uganda had managed to overcome under the leadership of her husband. She also recalled how God protected and the children during their exile life initially in Nairobi Kenya and later on Sweden from where they returned to Uganda after Museveni becoming President in 1986.
She then proceeded thanked God for her own long life confessing how she narrowly survived death this very year 2026. The President’s wife narrated how the enemy had come determined to annihilate her but she was able to overcome because of the grace of God and the prayers she received from prayer warriors and intercessors who regularly prayed and interceded for her at their respective churches-at the time she wasn’t able to pray for herself anymore. She said she had confirmed that hers is a faithful God.
She thanked God for accepting the prayers fellow Christians and other Ugandan intercessors of good will put out for her at the time she had become so frail to the point of not being able to pray for herself. She suspected that God must have reflected on all the years she had spent privately praying and interceding for the country, widows and other vulnerable citizens of Uganda and answered other people’s prayers, came to her rescue and gave her a second chance at life. She said she had been healed by God who she described as the best healer, physician and doctor ‘who never refers cases.’ She referenced on Isaiah 53:5.
It was an emotional moment as an ecstatic Janet struggled to hold back tears of joy several times, prompting her husband Gen YK Museveni, who sat next to her, to draw closer to give physical support (she spoke while seated). He came closer and helped to bend the microphone to enable the large congregation hear each and every word. The congregation burst into jubilation as the big man from Rwakitura demonstrated emotional sympathy towards his wife and mother of his four children.
Then at the end of her long prayer session, Museveni once again left his seat, drew closer and caressed her right hand in full view of media cameras present. On seeing how romantic her usually laid back daddy acted towards her mum, Bishop Patience beamed with blessedness and occasionally shed some tears of joy. Her husband Odrek Rwabwogo gave her a white hankie to dry up her face as she was clearly overcome by endless emotion.
Gen Museveni made her even more emotional when he thanked God, as part of his speech, for remembering his family through Patience by making her a Bishop yet since the days of his great grandparents (more than 150 years ago), his family deliberately avoided bazungu things (such as becoming Christians and serving in the colonial administration).
The proud father, whose long life Janet thanked God for, reminisced: “In our family, we had never produced even a catechist [even after Mzee Amos Kaguta his dad embraced Christianity in the late 1940s] but now we have a whole Bishop.” Museveni also testified about his daughter’s depth when it comes to comprehending and contextualizing the Biblical scriptures. That having grown up studying the Bible for 12 consecutive years under the Anglican clerics in the Ankole of his day, Museveni said he believed he adequately knew the Bible until Patience indicated it to him that the descendants of Lot and Esau were never Jews. He said this is something he had never taken note of.
Janet said she was grateful God must have reflected on the great evangelism work her parents did including seeking to uplift poorer members of their community in Ankole through education-and opted to rescue her from the devastating illness. “You are indeed a God who remembers His people.”
She thanked God for choosing Patience and also called upon Him to fill her with the anointing she needs to live up to the very high expectations that come with being consecrated a Bishop. She also prayed for growth for Patience Rwabwogo’s CNC Church so that it’s ministry works quickly expand beyond the borders of Uganda.
She also thanked God for friends like Bishop Osborn and other globally-famed evangelists who graced her daughter’s consecration. Museveni also thanked Bishop Osborn for leveraging Patience’s consecration ceremony to tip the Ugandan pastors (who were present in their thousands) on the need to prioritize being spirit-filled Bishops or else they risk remaining mere ‘business executives’ without the appropriate divine calling. Riding on Osborn’s earlier sermon, Museveni reminded Ugandan Pentecostal pastors of the need to adhere to the view that true religion must always address people’s spiritual and physical problems as opposed to individual preachers merely pursuing personal glory.
Regretting not being able to talk for long, the way he intended, Museveni ended his brief address by announcing his offer of 50 cows to his daughter, who he also thanked for teaming up with her other siblings (Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Natasha Karugire & Diana) to courageously support the ‘medical staff’ who dedicated their time to treat and support Janet to the point of recovery. He made it clear this had been a very difficult moment for the family but thanked God for the physical presence and emotional support their four children rendered. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
