Kidnaps that turn phony

On March 23, Kampala Metropolitan Police was informed of a suspected kidnap of Daphine Namanya, a first year Law Student of Uganda Christian University, Rubaga Campus.
The first report was made at Wandegeya Police Station indicating that men, who had been riding on a boda boda had kidnapped her.

But after three days the Flying Squad Unit located Namanya and what had been reported as a kidnap turned phony.
According to Emilian Kayima, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman, Namanya told police she had been staying at the home of a Good Samaritan in Rubaga Division after she lost her tuition fees.
“A suspected Good Samaritan, who claims to have been with her for all the three days, called her parents,” he says.
At police, Namanya said she was worried of her parents’ reaction deciding to leave school until she walked into the home of the “Good Samaritan”.
“She apologised and said she was responsible for the fake kidnap story. However, police had already opened a Form III to examine whether she had been sexually abused or has mental challenges,” he says.

Claimed kidnap of Mubarak Kalenge
Another suspected kidnap that police still doubts relates to a KCCA lawyer, Mubarak Kalenge.
On March 13, police were informed by residents at Afro American Restaurant in Bukoto, Kampala that Kalenge had been dragged in the car driven away by suspected armed men. Police Flying Squad Unit started a rescue mission, but Kalenge was later found at a hospital the following day.
Kira Road Police Station investigators visited him at the hospital to record a statement, but they were denied access, saying he was in a terrible state and could not talk.

Later he (Kalenge) claimed that officers at Kira Road Police Station were not up to task to investigate the case requesting for the file to be recalled by the CID.
At CID headquarters in Kibuli, Kalenge told detectives that after he was kidnapped, he was taken to Salaama, Makindye Division, where he was kept in the house but climbed into the ceiling and escaped through a hole that he had created in the roof.

Thereafter, he scaled a perimetre wall, but his ankle was cut by the barbed wire in the process of the escape. When he was out of the fenced home, a Good Samaritan found him on the way and took him to hospital.
He said he could not recall the place where he was rescued from.
Acting Commissioner in charge of general crimes at CID, Catherine Kushemererwa, who is currently investigating the case, told Kayima that one person was arrested on Kalenge’s suspected kidnap and his file was submitted to the Resident State Attorney for perusal, but it has not been returned.
Kayima said Kalenge’s story had several gaps and they were investigating whether he had any links with the suspected kidnappers.
Earlier, eyewitnesses told Daily Monitor Kalenge had had a chat with the two suspected kidnappers before they grabbed him into the drive away car. But, in his statement he told police he did not know the kidnappers.

Pulling the stops
According to Herbert Muhangi, the head of Flying Squad Unit, when a kidnap allegation is sounded, they put all the stops to focus on finding and rescuing the victims “because this is about life.”
In several cases, victims have been killed by the kidnappers before police rescues them.
For instance, two Chinese women were killed by their attacker before they were rescued.

Claimed kidnap of Aineya Mugasho

Another case of suspected fake kidnap was of Aineya Mugasho, 23, a relative of Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine.
Mugasho was reported to have disappeared on March 20, in Naguru, Kampala.
In the course of the investigations, detectives discovered that Mugasho had made a transaction but the person who was the destination of the transaction had no involvement in the alleged kidnap.

“We found out he didn’t have anything to do with victim’s disappearance,” Kayima says.
A week later Mugasho appeared and was interrogated at Jinja Road Police Station where he told detectives he had been kidnapped by unknown men, who beat him, broke his legs and left him for dead by the roadside.
“We noted the inconsistencies in his statements. He told us Naguru hospital had been closed yet it has never been closed in the period he stated,” the detective, who handled the case, said.

At some point, Mugasho told detectives that he had been taken to Nsambya hospital but he could not be admitted before his captors drove him to Nairobi, Kenya, where he got treatment and later contacted his relatives.
However, because his story was not consistent, his statements were put to test.
“We found out that the mobile phone he had used had picked a signal from a mast in Kabwohe, Sheema District. In fact, when we called the phone number he used, the owner told us he was in Kabwohe,” he says.
Police subjected Mugasho to a full medical examination and it was found that he had only covered himself with bandages.

“The doctors found no injury on the legs or any other part of the body,” Kayima says.
However, two days later police was informed that Mugasho was vomiting, prompting a second medical examination that established he had taken poison a day after he was released.
“Our investigations will inform us whether we should charge him with giving false information to a public officer or take him for mental treatment,” he said.