Woman expels lover after children rebel in defence of deceased father

The trio, aged between 10 and 13, told Mr Kafeero that their mother, in February,  threw them out of their late father’s house for the comfort of a lover.

Earlier, Ms Nabutono accused the children of turning unruly and refusing to acknowledge her new man as a foster father.

“Those children are undisciplined and they want to kill me,” she said.

She alleged that the trio had been imbibing alcohol and misbehaving, claims the children and some residents of Nawankonge Village in Kayonza Sub-county rebuffed.

This week’s explosion of things capped protracted tension, which peaked at the start of the year, when the mother dispatched the children to live with their grandparents in the eastern Kumi District.

They were to enrol and continue schooling from there, effective February when academic institutions reopened for first term. 

“But when we reached our grandfather’s home, he told us that we had been brought to learn how to use oxen to plough gardens,” said a 13-year-old boy, the eldest of the complainants.

They were never taken to school, despite going to Kumi with scholastic materials ready to study. Instead, they reportedly spent a fortnight getting a hang on gardening.

The children said plans to enlist them to do ox-ploughing on commercial scale prompted them to start a trek from Kumi back to Kayunga, some 210kms away, but a Good Samaritan they met on the way and briefed about their plight paid Shs50,000 for their transport fare.

They arrived on Sunday night and the next morning, headed to the district probation office to lodge a complaint of neglect and mistreatment against their mother, seven year’s since their father’s demise.

The late Sepiriano Omoding, who died in 2017 aged 75, was a popular traditional healer in Kayunga and sired eight children with Ms Nabutono, five of whom are adults who have moved out and set their own homes. 

However, the widow allegedly hooked up with a one Ronald Maguma, 42, whom residents identified as a former aide to the late Omoding.

Within a couple of months following Omoding’s death, he reportedly abandoned his wife, a mother of six, and moved into the deceased’s house.

It is then that the widow forced the children to start calling the newcomer “father”, according to their testimony to district officials.

Mr Maguma was unavailable to speak to these claims as he was a no-show at yesterday’s meeting to which the probation officer summoned him together with Ms Nabutono to answer to the charges levelled against them by the children.

It remained unclear why he did not attend, but unverified reports suggested he had travelled.

The mood at the public hearing under overcast skies was both pensive and confrontational, with voices occasionally rising as speaker after speaker admonished the widow, who was on her knees.

“I am sorry. Please, forgive me for marrying a man in my deceased husband’s house. I did not know [that] it was wrong. I am going to chase him away from the house,” she said amid sobs.

Hours before yesterday’s meeting, Ms Nabutono had proposed to local leaders that her new man was to build a house in the same village where they would relocate so that she could have oversight over both her new and old homes. 

Land conflict

This newspaper has learnt that at the centre of the fight is plans by the widow to sell off a 15-acre land that Omoding left at Shs60m.

Ms Nabutono acknowledged the arrangement, which she said followed disturbance by some of her in-laws over the property, but denied that her new lover broached the intended sale.

“When my late husband died, some people told me that I should marry another man so that he can help safeguard the family property because there were some relatives of my late husband who wanted to grab them,” she said.

Ms Annet Awinjo, the Nawankonge Village chairperson, said they foiled the plot to sell the land and accused Ms Nabutono of “chasing her children and happily staying with her new husband in the home”.

Mr Yeko Kisuze, a son-in-law, who attended yesterday’s meeting, earlier said trouble erupted after the widow brought a man to live in a house her late husband built.

“Then Nabutono ordered her children to always refer to the new husband as ‘father’, her relationship with her children deteriorated [and she] accused the children of being bad-mannered,” he said.

After yesterday’s meeting at Kayunga District headquarters, Mr Kisuze took the three children under his custody, despite their mother offering to reconcile with them and take them home.

The 13-year-old boy, who completed Primary Seven at Nyondo Church of Uganda, said he wants to continue with school and train as a mechanic while his sibling plans to join the Uganda Police Force in future.

In brief

•  Sepiriano Omoding dies in 2017 aged 75.

•  Widow hooks up with a one Ronald Maguma, 42, whom residents identify as a former aide to the late Omoding.

•  Within a couple of months following Omoding’s death, Maguma reportedly abandons his wife, a mother of six, and moves into the deceased’s house.

What they say... 

Swaliki Wamboga, Nabutono’ neighbour.

We as her neighbours tried to restrain her [Ms Nabutono] from interesting her children [in her lover] but she refused to listen and instead abused us. We gave up on her.

Abdul Kanaakulya, social worker.

The mother was blinded by love from the new ‘husband’ and turned against her children. I received reports of mistreatment from the children and I warned her but she wouldn’t listen.

Annet Awinjo, Nawankonge village chairperson.

 Most of the residents in my village condemn the mother’s inhuman act towards her own children. She doesn’t know these children could be of help to her when she grows old.