How police tracked killers of 3-year-old
Kampala Metropolitan police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire
What you need to know:
The officer-in-charge of Nateete Police Station, Assistant Superintendent of Police Hassan Ssekalema arrested three suspects, the victim’s neighbour, her friend, and a boda boda rider over the disappearance of the child
On April 21, Mr Nicholas Mutenda, a resident of Mutundwe in Rugaba Division, Kampala City, reported the disappearance of his three-year-old child.
Leticia Nangobi, 3, disappeared after she had gone to buy sweets at a shop.
The officer-in-charge of Nateete Police Station, Assistant Superintendent of Police Hassan Ssekalema arrested three suspects, the victim’s neighbour, her friend, and a boda boda rider over the disappearance of the child.
“Despite detectives interrogating them several times, the police didn’t find anything linking them to the disappearance of the child. They were released on police bond,” Kampala Metropolitan police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire said yesterday.
After several weeks of answering their bonds at the police station, Mr Owoyesigyire said crime intelligence officers gathered information.
“After talking to so many witnesses, they finally got someone who had credible information that the child had been killed by one of the suspects earlier arrested and released.
“The detectives and intelligence officers processed the information and then targeted the suspect,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
A credible source told the detectives that a female neighbour of the victim had killed the child because she suspected Ms Jane Namatovu, the mother of the kid, to be in love with her husband.
“As the police officers were about to take action, the prime suspect attempted to escape to the village. Our intelligence officers were tipped about the escape. Nateete Police Station officers deployed at the taxi park and arrested her,” he said.
At Nateete Police Station, the prime suspect was interrogated and she was exposed to evidence that she couldn’t dispute. She gave in and admitted to killing the child.
Mission
The suspect told detectives that on the fateful day, she found Nangobi going to the shop and called her for a soda and a cake. She then kept her in the bedroom.
“The prime suspect said she wanted to keep Nangobi for some hours so that child’s mother, Ms Namatovu, feels pain. She said later, she heard the entire village looking for the child and she feared to release her,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
Namatovu allegedly worked at the prime suspect’s home as a maid before. But the prime suspect accused Ms Namatovu of having an affair with her husband to the extent of having a child. When the suspect’s husband returned home, he is alleged to have found the village in chaos and learnt later that his wife had kidnapped the child.
“She first told us that it was at that time that her husband strangled the child to death to kill evidence. She said the body was kept in the home for one day before they took it to her rental in Kimbejja in Buddo, where they hid it,” he said.
According to police, she then informed her nephew, who resides in Buddo to bury Nangobi’s body. The police arrested the prime suspect’s husband, who denied killing the child. Last Tuesday, Nangobi’s body was recovered in a maize garden in Wakiso District. It was taken to Mulago for a postmortem.
