When members of the 12th Parliament take their seats in May, two names will quietly mark one of Uganda’s most unusual political reunions.
Susan Nakawuki, elected MP for Mawokota South, and Emmanuel Magoola, the MP-elect for Busiro East, will share the same political space after close to two decades of separation, reinvention, and rivalry.
Magoola and Nakawuki were once husband and wife (yes, they held a traditional marriage ceremony in 2006). Nakawuki’s political story began early and dramatically. Almost fresh from university, she entered both marriage and politics almost at the same time.
Magoola, then a businessman, bankrolled Nakawuki’s parliamentary campaign in Busiro East, helping her defeat NRM’s Mike Sebalu by a margin of about 7,000 votes. This was the height of the “Besigye wave” that also brought little-known Nabilah Naggayi in Kampala and Godi Akbar in Arua Municipality to Parliament.
At the time, Nakawuki and Magoola were strong supporters of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). They were part of a generation that believed FDC represented a serious alternative to President Museveni’s long rule.
In the 7th Parliament, Nakawuki became a visible face of youthful opposition politics. She was confident, outspoken, and unafraid to challenge senior figures.
Her husband, Magoola, though less publicly vocal, was known as a key organiser and financier in her political journey.
Breakdown
By 2010, their personal relationship had broken down. Nakawuki and Magoola separated, bringing to an end a union that had once blended domestic life and political ambition.
Four years later, in 2014, Nakawuki remarried, this time to Alintuma Nsambu, the former Bukoto East MP who once served as minister of state for ICT. He is now Uganda’s ambassador to Algeria.
Politically, Nakawuki’s path also shifted. In 2011, she chose not to defend her Busiro East seat. Instead, she contested in Masaka Municipality. By then, she had left FDC and stood as an independent candidate. It was a risky move.
She lost to Mathias Mpuuga, also a first-time contender who was riding on the wave of Suubi 2011.
However, in 2012, she pulled off another surprise by winning a seat in the East African Legislative Assembly as an independent. It was an unusual achievement in a system dominated by party bargaining. She served in EALA until 2022, maintaining a political relevance that many thought she had lost after he defeat to Mpuuga.
Her attempts to return to national elective politics were less successful at first. In 2021, she contested again in Mawokota South but lost to Yusuf Nsibambi of FDC. It seemed, for a moment, that her parliamentary days were behind her.
On the other hand, Magoola’s political journey unfolded differently but was equally marked by uncertainty and reinvention.
Throughout the years Nakawuki was in parliament, and later in EALA, Magoola remained largely in the background, known mainly as a businessman with unclear ventures.
At various times, he was described as a construction company owner or a money lender. The exact nature of his businesses was never fully established, adding to his reputation as an elusive figure.
He remained within FDC for many years. His formal entry into elective politics came in 2016 when he stood for the Busiro East seat on the FDC ticket. He lost to Medard Lubega Sseggona. The defeat did not end his ambitions. Instead, it seemed to harden them.
Ahead of the 2021 elections, Magoola left FDC under circumstances that were never fully explained. Some in the party accused him of working with Salim Saleh and the NRM, claims he did not convincingly dispel.
He stood as an independent candidate in Busiro East and again lost to Sseggona. For many observers, his political future looked bleak. Two defeats, questions about loyalty, and a break with the party that had once nurtured him all weighed heavily.
Then came 2026.
This time, the political winds shifted. In Busiro East, Magoola emerged victorious after securing the endorsement of the National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Mathias Walukagga, who had been disqualified. The endorsement proved decisive, helping Magoola consolidate the opposition vote and finally unseat Sseggona.
After a decade of trying, he had made it to parliament.
Almost simultaneously, Nakawuki staged her own comeback by winning the Mawokota South seat, defeating Nsibambi and NUP’s Martin Ssejjemba.
For those who remember Nakawuki and Magoola’s early years, the symbolism was hard to miss. Two former lovers, once married, and who once shared the same dreams, are now headed to Parliament using very different routes.
Once supporters of the FDC, they now arrive with distinct political identities: Nakawuki is a member of the NRM, while Magoola is “partyless” but opposition-leaning.
Yet Nakawuki enters the 12th parliament as a seasoned politician with a career marked by ups and downs.
She has come a long way from the young lady who once owned a small boutique inside Uchumi Supermarket at Garden City ( I interviewed Nakawuki as a rookie reporter for The Observer from her boutique, a week after she had been declared the winner in Busiro East in 2006).
Magoola arrives with a different image. To some, he is the man who finally broke through after years of persistence. To others, he is a political chameleon, moving between parties and alliances when it suits him. His victory, aided by Walukagga’s endorsement, raises questions about where his loyalties will lie in parliament.
Will Magoola and Nakakwuki’s shared past affect how they relate in parliament? Will they work together on issues that matter to their constituencies? Or will they maintain a polite distance, each focused on their own political survival?
In the corridors of parliament, some who know their story, like FDC’s Hassan Kaps Fungaro of Obongi (a beneficiary of Besigye Wave in 2006 and has bounced back), will most likely tell it in hushed tones.
Fungaro and others will remember the young political couple of 2005, that was full of promise and belief before things went awry. They are back!
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