In an unusual incident, Police in Kampala are hunting for a woman who kidnapped her own son, hid him at an unknown location and started demanding ransom from the husband before releasing him.
The incident according to Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire happened at Kigoma village, Bukasa parish in Nansana when Justine Namuleme kidnapped her own four-year-old son.
He explained that when the boy was kidnapped on September, 3,the father, Steven Wensiga , 50 reported a case of disappearance at Nansana police station.
A few days later, Wensiga found an anonymous letter demanding for shs4 million from him before the son is released.
“Wensiga found a letter at the doorstep with a phone number asking him to pay shs4 million in order to get back his son. He got suspicious and informed police that a ransom had been asked,” Owoyesigyire said.
According to police, they started investigating the matter and one of the people interviewed was Wensiga’s wife, Namuleme who was also the mother of the four year old boy .
Meanwhile, investigators smelt a rat when Namuleme started giving uncoordinated information to both police and her husband.
It was found out that what she told the husband about the kidnap was not the same information she gave to police.
“We tricked her that the number provided by the kidnappers was not available and she offered to give information to the husband that the same number would be available in a few minutes. This came to pass as a few minutes later, the number was back on,” Owoyesigyire said.
According to police, with this information, suspicion about Namuleme’s involvement in the kidnap of her son and demanding for ransom grew prompting investigators to try to interrogate her for more information.
“When we came to ask her some questions about the kidnap, she used the backdoor of the house to escape. The following day, the child returned home,” Owoyesigyire said.
He noted that when he was asked, the four-year-old boy told police, together with the father that her mother, Namuleme had given him to a boda boda rider who returned him home.
Owoyesigyire said investigations into the matter are continuing in order to arrest Namuleme together with her accomplice, both of whom are currently on the run.
“Efforts are still on to have these people tracked down and arrested. Lucky enough there was no harm inflicted on the child but it is unfortunate that the mother would go that far to kidnap her own child to ask for ransom from her husband. We condemn such acts.”
