Who is fooling who in custody battle?

Both women tell two different but slightly related stories, all compelling and dressed in goodwill.
All versions centre around a 32-year-old-Ugandan woman, Joan Nakibuuka and the plight of a seven-year-old orphan, Mohammed Luwasi or “Little Luke” as he is now known, in what appears his new found home, in Tucson, US.

Version 1
Nakibuuka and Little Luke, are described as victims of “child trafficking” by an American NGO, African Children’s Charities (ACC). Besides being a victim, Nakibuuka also claims her quest for justice is purportedly being frustrated by the American justice system.
The duo travelled to the US in May 2014 for a corrective surgery on Luwasi’s spine, the trip bankrolled by ACC. Nakibuuka, travelled along as legal guardian having received permission from Luwasi’s only known living relative and grandmother, 85-year-old Agatha Namusisi, who lives in Mpigi District.

Nakibuuka claims she had been living with Luwasi since he was three, which Namusisi acquiesced to. To legalise the custody she processed court papers at Nabweru Court where Grade One Magistrate Hope Bagyenda granted her authority in 2013.
On realising that Luwasi had a deformed spine, she sought for help at Mulago hospital where a social worker enlisted the help of the Wakiso Woman MP Rosemary Sseninde, who in turn brought the matter to one of the reporters at New Vision and an appeal for help was made in the paper.

The American charity stepped forward and began offering assistance, for education and medical care, among others. When it emerged that Luwasi required advanced surgery, which Mulago hospital could not offer, the charity offered to fly Luwasi to the US for advanced medical help. ACC also helped secure medical visas for Luwasi and his guardian but apparently Luwasi travelled on a one-way ticket unlike his guardian.
What is true is that Luwasi received the surgery in June last year according to medical records seen by this newspaper at the University of Arizona Medical Centre. On July 22, he also underwent another surgery for attempted clearing of hearing complications, since he is of school age but had problems with his senses.

Current images and videos show a lively Luwasi seemingly coping well after surgery. Nakibuuka, however, says, the American charity had other plans; putting Luwasi up for “sale to a willing buyer”. She claims the executive director of ACC, Vikki Kattman at whose residence they lived, introduced the idea of getting him a family for adoption for a “better life” which was not the original plan. She says Kattman had even secured a family that was willing to take on Luwasi.
Nakibuuka claims that on arrival in the US, both their travel documents were confiscated. She says Kattman conspired with Oro Police department, in whose precinct Tucson lies, to keep her visa away until it expired so she could be deported.
When this failed, Kattman, asked her to travel back to Uganda and leave the child to recuperate.

She further claims when she refused, Kattman kicked them out of the residence. She also gave her a new identity of “Rusty Jones” on top of intentionally cancelling medical appointments for Luwasi so that his medical visa be extended, and completely alienating him from her. While this was going on, the new potential adoptive parents kept receiving him as a way of preparing him for transition.
On making sense of the plot, Nakibuuka declined to return to Uganda unless she had the child. She sought the help of Uganda’s embassy in Washington DC, which took on the case and has been equally sucked into the custody battle.

Version 2
When the advert was put in the papers, ACC stepped forward to help because they were running several charity activities through their local affiliate run by Umar Semwogerere.
Joseph Musoke, a lawyer for ACC, said his client started supporting Luwasi—through their affiliate, then Nakibuuka who had custody of the child. After establishing that Mulago hospital could not offer surgery to correct Luwasi’s deformity, preparations for Nakibuuka and Luwasi to travel to Arizona commenced. The deformity was a result of chronic tuberculosis (TB) Luwasi had suffered in his infancy after his parents passed on and left him in the hands of his grandmother, who herself was not in position to seek medical help for him.

The church where Kattman prays had contributed immensely to the trip. Initially Nakibuuka and Luwasi were to stay at the Church’s shelter, some kilometres away, but Kattman suggested that since her home was closer to both the hospital and the church, it was convenient since some church members had expressed interest to visit them.

Barely a month after moving in the relationship went sour. Nakibuuka, reportedly was always on the phone (in her room), calling people back home. She said she was checking on her children. The bill accumulated to Shs5.6m ($1,600). It was from here that her phone line was cut off and she went gaga.
On the day she claims was kicked out of the house (June 8 last year), she was intercepted by an off-duty police officer Jason Lindley of the Oro Valley Police. A call had come in on the switchboard about a suspicious person wandering with a child. According the statement filed at the police, Officer Lindley made contact with her and was identified as Nakibuuka.

“She approached me saying she needed help. She went on to tell me that she and the boy are from Uganda and that her children are in Uganda and need help,” the police report states. She explained that she and the boy came to the US so he could have surgeries and she was to take care of him. “She did not have any identification. I asked where she was staying and she said the house was close by, but she did not want to go back.”
“Joan was upset because Vikki would not let her call her children in Uganda, saying she was not being treated well.” The officer walked her back to the residence to examine the documentation where they found Kattman. On inspection, Police maintained the child stay with her (Kattman) but Nakibuuka said she would not allow that. Because of the condition of the child, Police decided to pull and shove the child from her and agreed to drive to the station as investigations continued.

But police after various communications with the Child Protection Services, an agency in charge of children welfare, agreed that the Luwasi be handed back to Kattman. Nakibuuka who by now could not see eye to eye with Kattman requested to be taken to a church shelter but on condition that she does not return to Kattman’s residence.
According to the report, at the station she indicated wanted to phone back home to check on her sick children, which she was granted until the phone card was used-up. It was here that she enlisted the consular services of Uganda’s DC embassy.

The jostling begins
Nakibuuka, before processing custodian papers at Nabweru Court, where she stayed, was at first granted authority for Luwasi by the Mpigi district local government, according to records seen. She told the Mpigi probation officer that she operated a salon business and thus was capable of taking care of Luwasi given his frail condition.
Records also show that Luwasi’s father, Peter Mukibi and mother Jovia Nanjobe are both deceased.

In September last year, a call came through from the US to the probation officer in Mpigi reporting Nakibuuka’s conduct as ineligible to help Luwasi and immediately her custodianship was overturned. The probation officer assisted by local officials of ACC, and local area councils and the boy’s grandmother then transferred authority to the charity since they were the financers.
By this time, she had, however, enlisted the help of officials from Uganda’s embassy in Washington. After several engagements with the Child Protection Services, Luwasi was handed back to her. But the embassy could not afford to buy for them return air tickets. So they were literally stranded.

It was also established after the story broke late last year in Uganda that Luwasi’s grandmother signed the papers transferring custody of the child under duress, perhaps was tricked.
On November 15, an affidavit sworn in Luganda on a Police headed letter surfaced, in which Luwasi’s grandmother purported to be annulling the powers of custody she had given to ACC. The charity wrote to Interpol on the authenticity of the document, and it was found a fake. The deputy director for Interpol, Elly Womanya, indicated they did not have the said document in their files.

So where did it come from?
As dust began to settle, a one Isa Ssematisa, emerged from the shadows claiming to be Luwasi’s father and dragged Nakibuuka, who is still in the US in June to the Nabweru Court. Ssematisa claimed his son had been kidnapped.
With the help of Uganda’s embassy in Washington, Nakibuuka is now fighting for custody for Luwasi on two fronts—at Nabweru and in Arizona. Officials at the embassy describe the case as a kidnap.

At the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County, ACC filed a petition for custody of Luwasi who has since been also taken away and currently lives with staff at Uganda’s embassy in Washington.
The Nabweru Court wanted the child to appear on the stand on September 14 but he was not in custody of the two warring parties. Court requested for the appearance of Luwasi to help it reach a just and fair decision but the move aborted.

Court visits
But what is also not yet known is whether Luwasi had recollection of his parents. On June 6, Nakibuuka swore an affidavit at Nabweru court maintaining she sought custody for the child after she established from his grandmother, Namusisi that he was a total orphan. She now wants DNA tests with the purported father to establish the facts.
Nakibuuka is said to have reportedly got married to South Sudan national based in the US, Carlos Machar, who she reportedly met at the church shelter and is now starting a new life according to information available to this newspaper.

Attempts to contact her via her known cell number proved futile for several days. However, in April, during an interview with a Tucson based TV station, KVOA, she said: “I did not get married to become a citizen, I was in need of a husband.”
“ACC is responsible for bringing him [Luwasi] over and we have a responsibility of taking care of him and returning him,” she added.
The spokesperson for the Gender ministry in Kampala, Mondo Kyateeka, told local papers this year that they had established that Nakibuuka could have first consented to the deal to adopt Luwasi, but disagreed with Kattman after she was given little money
Kyateeka added that “Our agent has told us that the lady [Nakibuuka] is not willing to come back.”

But ACC’s lawyer, Musoke, discounted claims of flying Luwasi to the US with intentions of processing for him adoption. “The charity supports a lot of children in Uganda, so why would they specifically pick out a disabled one? The decision was just for goodwill until Nakibuuka blew it out of proportion to appear as if they are stealing a child.”
ACC’s lawyers last month wrote to the Nabweru Court arguing that Nakibuuka’s affidavit is fake because she was sworn in by a third party. The US embassy, however, argued that it didn’t matter at all.
ACC thinks otherwise, claiming “a fraudulent affidavit should not serve as a basis for a valid application in a magistrate’s court. We request your honourable court to demand that Joan/embassy present evidence that she was in Uganda in June, 2015.”

Last month, the court in Arizona made attempts to hold a telephonic conference session with the magistrate at Nabweru Court presiding over the family court, Edith Mbabazi. According to the court report, Mbabazi was requested to confirm her availability, which she did.
“As scheduled, the court phoned Her Worship Mbabazi at the planned time,” the report reads in part. She answered the phone and learning who was calling she requested court for more time because she was driving. The court called back again after 25 minutes but on calling her again five times the calls went unanswered.

No end in sight
The Arizona Court concluded that it will not waste more time calling the Nabweru court again and as such, it could not make orders contrary to Uganda orders.
The commissioner for children affairs in the Gender ministry, James Kabogoza, told this newspaper, that while Nakibuuka might not be willing to return to Uganda, Uganda’s embassy in Washington was doing everything possible to get Luwasi back.
You could guess this is just the beginning of the drama on who is fooling who.

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