Child kidnapped in Mbarara, rescued in Busega

A copy of the chit left behind by the kidnapper. PHOTO BY colleb mugume

What you need to know:

A good number of kidnapped children are not lucky enough to return home but two-year-old Devis from Mbarara was lucky to be rescued from the claws of his kidnappers. His father, Damian, shares his ordeal with Sunday Monitor’s Colleb Mugume

It was at 2.30pm, January 21, everybody else was in the house apart from Devis. He was outside playing with others. When his siblings went out to ask him to come for lunch, he was not in the compound, or the neighbourhood.

The father recounts
My wife and I got worried and started searching around. Suddenly, a neighbour’s child told us a stranger wearing a white shirt and white shoes had wanted him to take Devis to him but he refused. The stranger decided to carry Devis himself.

The kidnapper had left behind an envelope containing a chit with threats. It read: “I have people around watching all the steps you will take. If you defy the rules am going to give you, you will never get your child again… Don’t report to the police, don’t make any radio announcements… Contact me on this number 078159 2928.”

My wife was the first to read it and fainted upon reading the word “sacrifice”. I picked it and read it; I was interested in the details. By then, a crowd had gathered. They started giving all kinds of advice. I ran to police. I let everyone know I was going to police because of the kidnapper’s threats.
On my way to the station, I stopped at Uganda Martyrs Church and prayed. I said: “ God, you’re the one who gave me this child, I had girls you gave me this boy child… I want my child back alive. You’re the one who gives and takes, give me back my child alive.”

After the prayer, I proceeded to Mbarara Central Police Station. When I got to the crime intelligence office, I narrated my ordeal to the officer at the station. He asked me to give him the number of the kidnapper, which I did. Immediately, he dialled it and the call went through.

The kidnapper said: “I know what you want so tell me the point directly. I am the person with your child. You must do this. You must follow the instructions I had given you on the chit. First, my work is taking children then I send them to those who sacrifice them. I am now on my way to Kampala.

If you want your child back, you have to pay Shs5m. Otherwise, you will never see your child again. And make sure you do it in time. If you delay, you will be doing it at your own risk.”

The detective told the kidnapper he needed to first look for the money. The officer asked the kidnapper where he would find him when he got the money. The kidnapper told the officer to first get the money before he could direct him where to take it.

The officer told me the Flying Squad would help me. He rang the commander who was then in Ntungamo District. The commander told us he would return by 4pm. We waited until 7pm. The commander finally showed up at about 9.30pm. We met at one of the hotels. He contacted the Flying Squad at Police headquarters in Kampala and they agreed to meet at Mbarara Central Police Station the following morning. I spent a sleepless night.

Tracking the kidnapper
The police officer in Kampala started tracking the kidnapper. He called to let me know the child was already in Kampala around Busega. The Rwizi regional police commander reasoned that I should immediately leave for Kampala.

However, when we contacted the deputy commander of the Flying Squad in Kampala, he told us to stay in Mbarara and let them do their work. We told the Flying Squad commander in Mbarara what his counterpart’s response was but he insisted, saying: “...those people are very busy...just go there. If they see you, they will be quick to respond.”

We embarked on the journey. The kidnapper had instructed us not to use any other person’s number to call him. So before we left, the policeman who talked to the kidnapper as the parent, called to tell him we were going to entrust a friend with the task of delivering the money. “Sir I have gotten the money but because I have a problem with my leg, I am unable to walk. I am entrusting the money with a friend to bring it to Kampala tomorrow," the detective said. The kidnaper replied: “You are joking, I told you not to involve any other person.”
The officer pleaded that he already had the cash but his ailing leg would not let him move. The kidnapper agreed and we gave him the number of my colleague because I was afraid I would collapse on hearing my child cry. Each time the kidnapper was called, we would hear my child’s cry in the background.

We had agreed to give the kidnapper money by 4pm the following day. We reached Kampala past midday and police officers received us. At 4pm, the kidnapper beeped my number. The officers told us to call him.
My colleague called and told him he had reached Mpigi. He said he had half the money and was expecting to get the balance from Centenary Bank in the city but the bank would have closed by the time he arrived. My colleague suggested we conclude the deal the following day at 9am.

The kidnapper was angry. He said we were joking and defying his instructions. He then called the initial phone number which he knew was the parents’ contact.
He said: “You man, you have sent a wrong person. He is just joking around.”

I was on my knees calling upon God for help.
By the time we finished the different procedure involved, it was too late. We called off the operation until the following day.

We were at the police office early in the morning. We were almost giving up. We had agreed with the kidnaper to pay him by 9am and it was already time. My heart was nearly pumping out of my chest cavity. We pestered the officers and they eventually came.
The officers had been locating the base of the kidnapper. After identifying his base, they deployed with the colleague who was supposed to deliver the money to kidnapper.

They were coordinating with the one on the Global Positioning System. When they reached the scene, the kidnapper called and the officers advised us to tell him that the person meant to deliver the money was in the queue in the bank.

My colleague told the kidnapper: “I am in the bank withdrawing money, I will call you back shortly after getting out of the bank.” The kidnapper knew the deal was in progress. The officers at the headquarters kept directing the ones at the scene. “Move a bit, he has now changed the direction, now he is within the range...”

Eventually, the kidnapper called again and my colleague told him he was about to reach the meeting point but claimed he did not know the exact spot because he had never been to the city before.

The kidnapper asked where my colleague was. My colleague told him he was at a signpost reading “Mengo” but could not tell the name of the place.

The kidnaper directed him to proceed and he would see Busega roundabout. My colleague then said he had seen it and was standing right in the centre of the roundabout. The detectives had surrounded the place.
The kidnapper said he had seen him and asked him to move. The detectives had already spotted him. He used headphones during the call. As he was moving to the roundabout, the detectives grabbed him. He screamed like a scared pig.

He did not reveal where the child was but the other detectives immediately raided the place where the kidnapper was keeping the child. They found the house closed but the child was inside crying. They broke into the house and found the child naked with a woman and a partner who escaped through a window into a swamp. They only managed to arrested the woman.

I felt happy after seeing my child again. In fact when I saw my child alive, I forgave the kidnapper. People kept saying I should have at least slapped him. But all I wished for was to find my child alive…I said God will reward him…because he had been threatening us saying: “ if you think you’re wise, you should know I am wiser. I have done this job for 10 years.” I thank police and people who helped us in this struggle.

police speak out
Flying squad supports operations of even other units or stations mostly on violent and organised crime. So when we received information that some two children had been kidnapped in Mbarara and Kiruhura, we intensified operations.

We have special squads for such operations. We arrested two suspects at the scene but we realised one was the landlord to the main suspect who had rented a house three months before. He had brought the child but left it inside crying.

The local council committee broke the door and handed over the baby to the landlord to care for him until the tenant returned. That’s the time we were tracking them and arrested all of them. Another suspect escaped but we are looking for him. We are still interrogating him,”
Hebert Muhangi,
deputy commandant Flying Squad in Kampala

Previous tragedy
Few months ago another child was kidnapped from Sanga town council in Kiruhura District. Anthony Kamugisha, a P.5 pupil at Rwemikunyu primary school in Sanga went missing from the school on September 9, 2014.

Efforts by his parents to trace his whereabouts were futile until the kidnappers called them on phone demanding a ransom of Shs20m.

Aaron Kamukama, the victim’s father, told Daily Monitor at that time that the caller who claimed to be a witch doctor said the boy had been taken to him for sacrifice at his shrine by some people from Sanga trading centre. With the help of police, they traced the witch doctor, a one Charles Agaba and later arrested him at Mutukula border post in Rakai district on October 10, 2014.

But the child was not seen. The Flying Squad rescued the boy about two weeks ago from Lyantonde but the kidnappers escaped. After realising police were tracking them, they abandoned the child.