Family dispute cited in missing 7-year-old girl

Seven-year-old Nisha Amutuhaire. 

What you need to know:

  • Ms Lukia Nansanga says she suspects her former husband to be behind the theft of Nisha Amutuhaire.

A misunderstanding between a separated couple has been cited in a case of a missing child in Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District.

On March 18, Ms Lukia Nansanga, reported to Yesu Amala Police Station in Nansana that she suspects her former husband to be behind the theft of Nisha Amutuhaire, 7.

She said Amutuhaire, a top class pupil at Richie Nursery and Primary School in Nansana, was picked up by unknown people from her residence in Nansana on Saturday afternoon. Ms Nansanga is now married to another man.

She, however, suspects that her daughter was taken by her biological father, Mr Japhari Mubori, with whom they separated six years ago on account of irreconcilable differences.

Ms Nansanga said she tried to reach out to her former husband to come to Kampala and they look for the missing child together but that he told her that he was in a remote village in Busia and had no transport to come to Kampala.

“I sent him transport to come to Kampala but from that time, his phones went off and I don’t have any communication with him,” she said.

But Mr Mubori told Monitor yesterday on phone that he doesn’t know anything regarding her missing daughter.

“I have spent one year without talking to both my daughter and my former wife… I have been in the village in Busia District, and I just received a phone call from the mother of my child, telling me about her missing from home,” he said.

In a Tiktok message that went viral yesterday, a female voice said to be the child’s aunt, indicates that the child had gone to the shop at night with another friend when she went missing. She said together with friends and neighbours, they searched everywhere for the girl in vain.     

Neighbours who spoke to Monitor last evening said on the fateful day, they saw a man standing near the fence of the family residence, asking the children to pick some eggs. Another neighbor said after two hours, she saw Ms Nansanga crying that her daughter was missing. The neighbours accompanied her to the nearby police station and reported a case of a missing child.

Ms Nansanga told this publication yesterday that whereas police detectives at Yesu Amala Police Station told her that they would investigate the matter, there was no breakthrough four days later.
“I have also reported to our Local Council One, community radio stations and put adverts on radio stations as well as social media but I have not yet got any response,” she said.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said Nansana Division Police had taken up the matter for further investigation.

“We have summoned the father of the missing child to police and he is expected to report today for statement recording and other inquiries,” he said.