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By Benon Herbert Oluka & Richard M.
Kavuma
WEEKLY OBSERVER
The estranged wife of former President Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa has
suffered depression and food poisoning.
Ms Tomoko Yamamoto, who
separated from Binaisa two weeks ago, says she has never received the
$30,000 that he promised her as a divorce settlement.
One of the
friends who have been looking after her since the separation, says Tomoko
was shattered by the way she was abandoned and hounded out of her former
marital home in Muyenga, Kampala.
The 58-year-old Japanese-born-American rejected persistent requests for
an interview. By press time, she had reportedly moved from a Kampala
suburb, where she was living with a Makerere University professor, to an
undisclosed location in central Kampala.
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| Binaisa and Yamamoto at their wedding in
December last year |
Efforts to talk to Binaisa were also fruitless as his phone was
switched off. His lawyer Erias Lukwago could not say whether Binaisa had
paid the money.
I executed the instructions given to me; for details,
you talk to my client, Lukwago said.
Two weeks ago, Binaisa swore a statutory instrument accusing Tomoko of
coercing him into joining the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
and ordering her out of his house. Newspaper reports said Tomoko also
wanted Binaisa to donate his land on Mutundwe hill to the church.
Our source says that Tomokos shock was compounded by the fact that she
had closed down the American chapter of her life, hoping to start a new
life in Uganda. She even defied her daughter who was against her coming to
Africa, and shipped all her belongings to Uganda.
She even planned to start the Binaisa Foundation Fund, in addition to
helping to publish her husbands memoirs.
According to our source,
Tomoko denies forcing Binaisa to join or donate 150 acres of his land to
the Unification Church.
She points out that Binaisa has been in close contact with the
Unification Movement since the early 1980s when in exile in the United
States, especially in New York City where Moons Church has its
headquarters.
Origins of trouble
Tomoko instead blames Binaisas children, accusing them of fighting her
because they do not want her to share in their fathers property.
Binaisa has seven children, including Nakalema Binaisa and Francis
Birungi; under normal circumstances heirs to his sizeable estate.
Yamamoto therefore is the only obstacle standing between them and
Binaisas premium properties in Makindye, and a brand new house on a
150-acre land in Mutundwe, explained the source.
Tomoko says that despite the children moving out of their fathers home
early this year, she did not get peace.
In April, she suddenly left the
country and spent a month in the United States, and although Binaisa
officially said that she was attending to her daughter who had just given
birth, reports suggested that she had actually fallen out with
Nakalema.
Gen. Ali intervenes
The Weekly Observer has learnt that First Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Disaster Preparedness, Moses Ali picked interest in the matter
when Binaisa announced the separation.
In an interview this week, Ali confirmed his interest, explaining that
he got involved as an ambassador for peace of the Unification Churchs
Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace
(IIFWP).
Both Binaisa and Tomoko are also ambassadors for peace and
they identified each other through this system, said Ali, the IIFWP
chairman in Uganda.
So I felt brotherly concern and I wanted to find
out what had happened.
The general said he found out that Binaisas family feared that his
marriage would interfere with the claim of Binaisas children to his
property.
Moses Ali said his inquiries showed that Binaisas daughter Nakalema
was a key player in the affair. On reports that Tomoko feared for her
life, Ali said he had raised the issue with Internal Affairs minister
Ruhakana Rugunda and that a guard had been provided.
You see she is also a foreigner; we do not want anything to happen to
her, the deputy prime minister said.
Police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi
said Tomoko was allowed to keep a police guard when she moved out of
Binaisas house.
We allowed her to keep the guard because although
they were separating briefly, she was still Binaisas wife, he
said.
However, according to our source, Tomoko was without a guard by
press time. Friends had wanted to take her out last weekend but she
refused, citing security fears.
Gen. Ali however remained hopeful; saying he intended to involve
Binaisas friends such as Spear Motors Chairman Gordon Wavamunno, to
arrange a reconciliation meeting between the estranged couple.
Daughters errands
While refusing to let The Weekly Observer talk to her father, Nakalema
denied sabotaging Tomoko, saying it would be uncultured of her. She said
she and her brother Birungi moved out of Binaisas Muyenga residence to
Makindye in February and had nothing to do with the separation.
My
brother and I had nothing to do with mzees decision. My only role in that
marriage was to organise my fathers wedding, she said.
Instead, Nakalema charged, Tomoko spoilt her own fortunes.
She
reportedly took over Binaisa.
She started chasing all mzees relatives
away. In fact, it is mzee who exposed her agenda, Nakalema said.
That
agenda reportedly included trying to convert him into a Moonie against the
old mans wishes, as well as plotting to take over his land.
A week before he left Tomoko, Binaisa reportedly told Nakalema and
Birungi, as well as his other children abroad, that he was uncomfortable
with the marriage.
Asked why she was being picked out as the one pushing the divorce,
Nakalema dismissed the charge as baseless. She said Binaisa himself had
contacted his lawyer Erias Lukwago, although he gave the children some
small errands.
One of those errands was to contact World Wide Movers to ensure that
Tomokos luggage was shipped out of Uganda.
Her final destination was
not clear by press time. Originally, she said she could not return to
America after ignoring her daughters advice. However, reliable sources
said her luggage was due to be shipped back to Ohio, U.S.A., meaning she
might end up there.
She is, however, due to fly out to South Korea later this month, before
going to her native home Japan.
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