Mother arrested over kidnap of 4 year old son

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police Crime Intelligence unit has arrested a woman for kidnapping her four-year-old son and demanding 32 Million Shillings ransom from her husband.

Last week, the boy’s mother Annet Kiiza and neighbours filed a report at Nansana police station that Daniel Male had been kidnapped while playing with his friends.

Police launched a hunt for the boy’s whereabouts in vain. The boy’s father Dennis Ssebulime received a call from an anonymous caller instructing him to send shillings 32 million if he wanted the boy alive.

The kidnappers warned Ssebulime not to alert the police because the boy would be killed.

He pleaded with the alleged kidnapper to give him some time to collect the money. Soon after the anonymous call, the wife started compelling Ssebulime to send whatever money he had so that her son could be brought back alive.

Since the case had already been reported to the police, Ssebulime decided to inform security about the latest development. The crime intelligence team joined Nansana police officers and quickly started tracking the location of the caller.

The overt and covert team was deployed in Nansana West 1B and neighbouring villages.

The plain-clothed officers reached the house in which Male was being hidden. Police arrested the woman who was found with the boy. She was identified as Annet Tumusiime.

“It looked like the person with the boy was not a stranger. We arrested the woman but she insisted that we should speak to the boy’s mother first. The mother was called and we immediately established these people knew each other,” a detective who was part of the investigations said.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said the investigators have since learnt that Kiiza and Tumusiime are sisters. The duo according to Enanga, conspired to get money from Ssebulime by creating a kidnapping story of the boy.

“These women have confessed to the crime and they say it was their plot to get money from the boy’s father. We condemn such acts of getting money from relatives through unlawful ways. There are lawful ways money can be got like involving in relatives,” Enanga said.

Kiiza and Tumusiime wait to be arraigned in Nabweru court. More than 50 cases of self-kidnap are registered by police every year. For instance, 65 cases of self-kidnap were recorded in 2020, 48 self-kidnaps were recorded in 2019 while 99 self-kidnaps were registered in 2018.

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