Child kidnaps hit Fort Portal

Cases of child kidnaps have hit Fort Portal Municipality with three children reported abducted within only two months.
In all the cases, the children have been kidnapped from their homes at night, with the abductors demanding huge sums of money as ransom in two of the cases.
One of the children was killed and another returned after a ransom was paid, not before the kidnappers removed the child’s teeth to pressure the family to deliver the money. The third child abduction happened on Monday this week.
The Kabarole District CID boss, Ms Godliver Twinomugisha, said the first incidence was reported mid-October when a child was kidnapped from Itara in South Division, Fort Portal Municipality, and later dumped at St John’s Cathedral at around 10pm on October 24 after the family paid the ransom.
The child’s mother, Ms Hilda Kahinju Basooma, said the incident happened on October 16, at around 8pm after a blackout when she stepped out to check her electric meter box for any fault.
“I later saw a strange person wearing a mask and when I made an alarm during that confusion, another person jumped over the fence only to realise that my daughter, who was standing outside, had been carried off,” Ms Basooma said in October.
The alarm attracted relatives and neighbours who chased after the suspected kidnappers but could not catch up with them.

Demanding ransom
After about an hour, the kidnapers called the relatives using one of the family members’ phone which had been stolen a week earlier.
The kidnappers told the parents they had the child and demanded Shs7 million for her freedom.
Ms Basooma said they later switched off their phones until October 24 when the kidnappers resorted to calling other relatives. The family reported the matter to police who embarked on a joint search.
Later, the family members started negotiating with the kidnappers until they settled for Shs2. 5 million.
Ms Basooma said after delivering the money, the family was called told to pick up the child at the cathedral near Kyebambe.
The relatives found the child had lost three teeth.
The mother later took the child to Virika Hospital for treatment.
But the second case was fatal as the body of the child kidnapped at Mbuzi Village at the end of October was found floating on River Mpanga.
In the latest case on Monday, a three-year-old Reagan Makune was kidnapped from his parents’ home at Kiculeta Village also in Fort Portal Town.
The mother, Ms Prima Makune, said she had gone to her neighbour to pick up some clothes only to find her child missing at around 9am.
The family members immediately mounted a search in the nearby bushes in vain.
Later on Tuesday, the kidnappers dropped a paper at home bearing the contacts, which police has asked to be withheld not to jeopardise investigations.
The kidnappers wrote on the paper that they needed a ransom in order to release the child.
“They first demanded Shs8 million but later we managed to negotiate down to Shs3 million, which we paid and the child was dumped today (Thursday) morning opposite Kalya Courts Hotel,” said Ms Kamakune.

Parents blamed
His relative, Ms Katusiime Akiiki, said the child said the kidnappers were holed up with the kid in the bushes feeding him on only chapatti.
But the police say that all the cases of child kidnaps so far in Fort Portal are due to the laxity of parents or guardians.
“Most parents are not responsible for their children, how do you leave a child unattended to, especially at night” Ms Twinomugisha said.
“Let the people be vigilant, there is poverty and many people are looking for many ways of survival, crime has become digital and criminals learn more tricks daily, even on internet and TV,” she added.
She said this form of crime is new in the area and warned the public to be vigilant, especially ahead of the festive season.