gnome-language-selector crashed with AttributeError in getCurrentInputMethod(): 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'split'

Opening the language administration panel from a xubuntu session caused this crash.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: language-selector-gnome 0.165.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-59.80-generic 4.4.35
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-59-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: kpatch_livepatch_Ubuntu_4_4_0_59_80_generic_16
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.5
Architecture: amd64
CrashCounter: 1
Date: Mon Jan 30 21:33:18 2017
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-language-selector
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-09-09 (143 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python3.5
JournalErrors:
 Error: command ['journalctl', '-b', '--priority=warning', '--lines=1000'] failed with exit code 1: Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
       Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
       turn off this notice.
 No journal files were opened due to insufficient permissions.
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gnome-language-selector
PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/gnome-language-selector']
SourcePackage: language-selector
Title: gnome-language-selector crashed with AttributeError in getCurrentInputMethod(): 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'split'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: sudo