Woman convicted for faking own kidnap

Buganda Road court chief magistrate’s court has convicted Sarah Nasirye Sarah, 26 of charges related to demanding for a ransom from her dad over alleged kidnap.

On Monday afternoon, Nasirye admitted that on April 18, she demanded for ten million shillings from her father Hajji Sulaiman Mutyaba claiming she had been kidnapped.

However, her lawyer asked court for a lighter sentence since his client voluntarily accepted to change her plea to plead guilty to the charges.

She asked for a non- custodial sentence since she is a first offender.

However, the state prosecutor Viola Tusingwiire asked court to give Nasirye a deterrent sentence for having abused the trust from her dad by faking her own kidnap and requested for a ransom.

Buganda Road chief magistrate James Eremye Mawanda said he would hand a community service sentence to the convict after her relatives told court that they had reconciled with Nasirye.

The number of kidnaps have increased in the recent past but also the number of people who fake them have also increased.

Last week police in Kampala arrested 21 year old Mariam Uwase who allegedly staged her own kidnap with an intent to extort money from her ‘stingy’ boyfriend.

Uwase is said to have manipulated her voice using a voice changing software and made frantic teary phone calls to her boyfriend claiming she had been kidnapped and a Shs25m ransom staked on her head.

After a few days of negotiation with the alleged abductors, Old Kampala Police would launch a secret rescue mission only to find Uwase living fatly and comfortably in a mansion and upon questioning she confessed to staging her own kidnap.

Last week, a UPDF officer attached to Bombo barracks was arrested for allegedly kidnapping her own wife and demanded for a two million shillings ransom from his father in law.