Missing Masaka girl found, father probed for providing false information

Zahara Nakafeero, a 14-year-old who was reportedly kidnapped in November last year has been found and reunited with her family in Masaka District.

Ms Nakafeero who purportedly went missing after sitting for her senior two promotional examinations at Kirimya Vocational and Secondary School in Masaka District on November 23, was on Monday afternoon given back to her father Mr Ibra Kabugo Mugendawala.

Before the Regional Police Spokesperson Mr Lameck Kigozi reunited the two, the Crime Investigations Officer in Charge of Masaka Central Police Station, Mr Elias Bairuka said they [father and daughter] were free to go although he declined to reveal how police traced the girl.

However, this created a conflict between him and the Regional Police Crime Intelligence Officer, Mr Ronald Bogeere who later ordered for the summoning of Mr Mugendawala and new investigations be carried out.

When contacted, Mr Kigozi said the girl’s father should be probed and charged for providing false information to police, contrary to what Mr Bairuka had earlier confirmed.

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After Mr Mugendawala received his daughter, he left for a thanksgiving party at his home in Lwengo. However, the Masaka Residents District Commissioner Mr Herman Ssentongo said the security committee will have him [Mr Mugendawala] in a meeting tomorrow together with other family members.

In December last year, investigations into Nakafeero’s disappearance took a new twist when police started investigating a close relative suspecting them to know her whereabouts.

Today Nakafeero refuted claims that she had been kidnapped saying, after leaving school, she visited a friend in Mukono District, and did not return home fearing to beaten by her father.

“My father is short tempered, so I feared to get back home fearing to be beaten, I stayed there until when my friend advised me to go to my uncle’s home at Nkuke village in Lwengo Ditrict who later notified my father,” the girl said.

She added that then his father brought her to police to report that she had re-appeared which the father also confirmed at police.

However, Mr Mugendawala on Saturday posted on a WhatsApp group informing the members that his daughter had been discovered by Police thanking the Lwengo District leaders for comforting him.

Since the alleged disappearance of the girl, Mr Mugendawala, who is also the Lwengo District Councillor representing Ndagwe Sub-County, has been making contradictory statements both to Police and in the media.

In mid-December last year, he informed the media that his daughter was kidnapped and believed to be in the cruel hands of kidnappers who demanded a ransom of Shs5m to release her body.

He attracted a number of sympathizers who contributed the money which he later said he had dropped at one of the places around Kabaka Anjagala road upon the direction of the kidnappers.

When we contacted Mr Mugendawala after police discovered that the girl was still alive, he declined to talk about kidnappers again saying callers could have been a plot manned by the girl’s uncles with support from her mother who lives abroad.
When asked about the same matter yesterday he said everything related to threatening calls was handed over to police for thorough investigations.

However, today Mr Kigozi has said according to the RCID, there are no anonymous calls from telephone call printouts as claimed by the father.

Mr Mugendawala had earlier claimed that when his daughter did not return home, he thought she was at her uncle’s place in Masaka Town until he received a call at around midnight demanding Shs11m as ransom for his daughter; after sometime they called again demanding for Shs5m to release the body as a penalty for contacting police.

A senior officer at Lwengo Police Station told Daily Monitor that Mr Mugendawala is just playing tricks around to dupe money from sympathizers since he has been deep in debt.

“He may not have started the plan to hide his daughter, but he knew that she was not kidnapped; when she disappeared, he brought in the idea of kidnap since he is a famous NRM stalwart. His target was statehouse to give him money to clear off the ransom. We are yet to find out whether he had received any but residents gave him beyond what he wanted and I am sure he has cleared off his debts now,” one of the senior officers who preferred anonymity said.