Declassified: SUSAN NAKAWUKI, a legislator riding more on beauty than brain
BY EDRIS KIGGUNDU
Susan Nakawuki, the former Busiro East MP, who was elevated to the national political stage when she defeated Mike Ssebalu, an NRM heavyweight, in 2006. She is now a member of EALA.
I first met Susan Nakawuki at her boutique which was boxed inside the defunct Uchumi supermarket at Garden City in 2006. We met two weeks after she had defeated Ssebalu in Busiro East.
For a first timer and a relatively unknown politician, I wanted to find out what Nakawuki was made of and how she had achieved that feat. So I arrived at her boutique and after introductions (and getting used to her beauty- boy, she had a smile), I started shooting question after question. She answered them quite easily and convincingly.
She talked of how she had been inspired by women activists of yesteryear such as Winnie Byanyima, Miria Matembe and Cecilia Ogwal. “I want to follow in their footsteps,” she told me, revealing that she was about to complete her law degree at Makerere University.
As part of her profile I talked to some people who had interacted with her within FDC circles.
“She is brilliant and resilient,” a female veteran FDC MP told me when I asked for her opinion on Nakawuki.
But she added: “As long as she keeps her feet on the ground, does not enter into petty competition on fashion (like many female MPs are wont to) and steers away from men, she will make it.”
I waited for her to make an impression at parliament and she did. Only that it was in the wrong spheres. While she hardly said anything on the floor of House, her piercing laughter was always hard to miss within the corridors of parliament.
She seemed too eager to take in compliments and to seek validation (from journalists or her colleagues) about how she looked or dressed. On more than three occasions, I saw her ride with the former vice president, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, in his official car. She loved every bit of it (who wouldn’t want to ride with Number Two) and would make a show of it.
From then onwards, it was downhill for Nakawuki. During an FDC retreat in Lweza, her then husband (Emmanuel Matovu) accosted a male FDC legislator accusing him of having an affair with his wife. The two went physical and had to be separated by party officials. She separated from Matovu (who had been introduced by another woman) and became unpopular in her constituency and party.
In 2011, she migrated to Masaka municipality and got married to Alintuma Nsambu, a former minister who had also lost his political bearings. She lost to Mathias Mpuuga and momentarily her political career looked over.
But she made an unexpected and shocking comeback when she was elected a member of EALA in 2012 (the details of how she made it to EALA is a story I will tell another day). She was re-elected again this year.
I know some people could argue that since she is still a member of EALA, it could be premature to write her off.
Yet given her potential, she could have achieved better and more on the local political scene. Probably she could have become a committee chair or senior party official.
Having got new connections in NRM, Nakawuki chose to go to EALA, which, truth be told, has since become the graveyard for failed local politicians.
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