By Gad Masereka
Uganda Police Force is hunting for unknown thugs alleged to have kidnapped Maria Nagirinya Gateni, a staff at Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI).
Nagirinya was kidnapped from Lungujja, Busega Community zone on Wednesday, August 28, at 11pm by unknown people shortly after her younger sister opened the gate.
According to the older sister, as she was opening the gate, two men grabbed and threw Nagirinya in the back seat of her car, a spacio registration number UBA 570V. “There was a big scuffle but they just drove off,” Nambalira said.
Rose Mwambazi a friend to Nagirinya said, they attended an NGO training together at Muyenga during day time. However she didn’t know about her whereabouts after lunch.
“We had training in Muyenga CIDI offices that ended at 2:00pm and she then drove away even before having lunch. We didn’t know where she went. At around 11 pm, we received a call from her father who reported she had been kidnapped,” Mwambazi said.
Kampala Metropolitan Spokesperson SP. Patrick Onyango, confirmed the kidnap and said, Police CCTV footage recorded the car at Kinawataka and the hunt for the suspects is on.
He added that family members reported the case on Thursday August 29 at Busega Kibumbiro Police post under reference 04/29/08/2019.
“We have registered a case of kidnap and the case and it is being handled by the Katwe Police station. We have recorded a statement from relatives and friends and investigations are going on.” He added that the Police CCTV footage recorded the car at Kinawataka and that the hunt for the suspects was ongoing.
Cases of abduction of abduction was are extremely rare in Uganda, although there was a wave kidnappings for ransom of school children and women in 2018 but that too subsided over time after it was revealed a large percentage of the cases were self-kidnaps or involved family members. But one case that stood out, was the kidnap and eventual murder of 28-year-old Susan Magara.
Magara, the cashier of Bwendeiro dairy farm was kidnapped and held captive for about three weeks in February 7 last year as her kidnappers negotiated with her family for a $1 million (about Shs 3.6bn) ransom.
After allegedly receiving $200,000 (about Shs 700m) of the ransom money, the kidnappers killed Magara and dumped her body in Kitiko village between Kigo and Kajjansi along the Entebbe expressway on February 27, 2018.
