When Muhakanizi lost our wedding ring, I learnt commitment was about the heart- widow

The widow of Ugandan economist Keith Muhakanizi Saturday told mourners that she learnt marriage was about the heart when her husband lost their wedding ring in the capital of the United States of America.

The couple, who have three children, wedded on December 8, 1990.

“A week after our wedding, Keith Muhakanizi flew to Washington to attend World Bank meetings and returned with no wedding ring after two weeks,” Mrs Janet Muhakanizi told mourners.

According to the widow, she was puzzled and forced to ask Muhakanizi to explain how the matrimonial ring had vanished.

“I asked him what had happened. He told me that he didn’t know. I was confused but he wasn’t bothered about the lost ring,” she said.

“Then later, I learnt that it was not the ring as a symbol of commitment but the heart…Keith has lived to this,” she told a gathering of mostly government officials including President Museveni on a cloudy day.

Described by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija as one of the “grandfathers of Uganda’s modern economy,” Muhakanizi died after he’d long battled cancer- which he succumbed to in Italy on April 13.

Mrs Muhakanizi said circumstances under which the ring got lost remained a mystery even until when her husband was pronounced dead.

“But the God who united us on December 8, 1990 and ended this commitment on April 13 is testimony to Keith’s innocence in losing the ring,” Mrs Muhakanizi highlighted.

‘What hurt me’

Meanwhile, Mrs Muhakanizi revealed that she had “enjoyed a deeper understanding of Keith through his sickness.”

“What hurt me, a week before Keith could not talk, was that he told me about some relatives who I didn’t know. I wondered why all that came to his mind at that particular time.”

“Maybe, God wanted me to know more about his relatives so that the children get to understand their identity more,” Mrs Muhakanizi noted as she visibly started to snivel.

The widow also disclosed that Muhakanizi had tasked her on family stewardship.

“He first told me that he wanted to tell me something but kept quiet for a week. Then he said I have prepared for my children but make sure that you give them guidance."

Born in 1957, Muhakanizi who often gesticulated while delivering remarks- was buried on April 23 in Lyantonde District in an event that ends his much-acknowledged economic technocracy in government from June 1982-2023.