Winnie Byanyima and Yoweri Museveni did not meet as strangers.
Museveni spent a significant portion of his early life living with the Byanyima family, who supported him financially by paying for his education.
This arrangement fostered a complicated relationship between them, marked by both a sense of obligation and a deep connection.
As childhood turned into youth, friendship slowly gave way to closeness: proximity bred intimacy, and a bond blossomed.
Sources claim that in the early 1980s, as the country hurtled toward conflict, Byanyima and Museveni entered into a romantic relationship.
Love amid turmoil
The backdrop was tumult. Museveni led the rebel struggle in the bush war (1981–1986), and Byanyima didn’t stay on the sidelines.
She left her job as an aeronautical engineer and joined the fight.
Some accounts say their romance carried on through those dangerous years, nights under canvas, whispered plans in the shadow of conflict, and the promise of a better future glinting beyond the smoke of war.
That shared danger, that solidarity, forged a connection between them deeper than ordinary affection.
In a recent interview she said plainly:
“Yes. A long time ago I had a relationship with President Museveni … but it has no relevance now.”
Her tone was calm. Measured. Final.
She added:
“President Museveni is someone whom I’ve known since I became aware of the world. He was visiting our home when I was three years old. I’ve known him all my life.”
“I think people think the relationship had an element of scandal, or maybe it makes me uneasy…they couldn’t be more wrong…”
“This is a relationship I had so many years ago, and my view about it is that it was a normal relationship with some challenges, and I left it, but it is not interesting for the political discussion; it is just interesting between us.”
Choices and marriages
When victory came and the rebels took over, Museveni remained married to his wife, Janet Museveni, who had been living in exile abroad.
Byanyima, the story goes, was cast aside. He ended the relationship. He chose history and power over passion.
The heartbreak, as she once reflected, was “painful”. It was not characterised by bitterness or anger; rather, it stemmed from a lingering sense of loss.
Somewhere between the guns and the politics, another man entered her life: Kizza Besigye.
READ ALSO: Meet President Museveni Second Wife Enid Kukunda (Photos)
Byanyima married Besigye in 1999—a union that would alter the course of her life and the bitter rivalry between two former rebel comrades.
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