Love story: How tough-talking Miria Matembe met and fell in love with her husband

Former ethics and integrity minister Miria Rukoza Koburunga Matembe recently shocked some Ugandans when she said no man should marry his daughter expecting her to cook for him.

Matembe also told a local television station men should learn to live in the new era of women emancipation and gender equality.

This tough statement left some wondering how the tough-talking Matembe even fell in love with her husband.

Yet, for over 45 years, Miria and Nekemia Matembe have been wife and husband, after their wedding at St James cathedral in Ruharo, Mbarara, on  July 12, 1975.

But how did they meet?

Sometime in 1973, Miria Matembe’s cousin held a bachelor party at Old Kampala. Then, Miria was a student at Makerere University, and Nekemia Matembe was a mu-summer of sorts — recently returned from Scotland where he had gone for further studies.

Miria was struck by Nekemia Matembe’s dance strokes.

“I saw this young man that was dancing away on the floor, and when I inquired about him, my cousin told me that he was called Matembe,” Miria Matembe told Daily Monitor in 2013.

And the feeling seemed mutual. Nekemia, too, was smitten by Miria’s dance moves. But there was more to the dances that lit a fire for Miria Koburunga in him: the legs.

“I noticed a young girl on the dance floor and I was mesmerised. It was her perfect figure eight and beautiful shapely legs that caught my eye,” revealed Nekemia about eight years ago.

They would date for two years, before their wedding. During these two years, Nekemia Matembe, who then worked with Uganda Breweries, would take Miria on dates.

Nekemia also taught Miria Matembe how to drink beer.

“He was the one who taught me how to drink alcohol and we used to mix coca-cola with beer.”