Muhammad Segawa’s six-year-old son, Quiram Segawa, was kidnapped last week in Makindye. Quiram was returned on a Bodaboda after he paid two million shillings to the kidnapper, Fred Mwanje, who has since been killed by security agencies.
Muhammad narrates that it was a tense hour as he looked for the money Mwanje needed amidst threatening him that his son was going to be reduced to a corpse. Mwanje directed Segawa to send the money on mobile number 0701 790104 which was registered in the name of Moreen Nabaweesi.
Segawa says police quickly advised him to pay the two million shillings Mwanje demanded because he was a serial kidnapper just interested in money. “Police officers told me to pay the money as quickly as possible because the kidnapper was only interested in money and does not kill children,” Segawa explains.
Quiram was brought back on a motorcycle 40 minutes after two million shillings had been sent to a telephone line in the name of Moreen Nabaweesi. Segawa says with the police’s assurance that the kidnapper was just money minded and not a killer, he called friends and relatives who helped him to raise the money.
“I didn’t have the money on me. But I had to look for it by all means because the police had also promised me that I pay the ransom but they were going to get the kidnapper because he had earlier kidnapped other children. I am happy that the police’s advice worked and my child was brought back,” Segawa said.
Senior Commissioner of Police- SCP Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, said Mwanje was killed during the operation after he put up resistance to the Flying Squad team that had smoked him out of his hideout.
Enanga said before Mwanje kidnapped Quiram Segawa, and Najib Muyingo, he had earlier kidnapped two other children and successfully received a ransom of two million shillings for each. Police say they delayed arresting Mwanje because he often changed locations. He would hide in areas of Kulekana, Entebbe, Namulanda, Bweyogerere, and Mabira. He sometimes called the parents of the kidnapped children while standing in Kampala taxi parks.
“We would like to inform the public that the notorious child kidnapper, who was linked to four incidents of child kidnap for ransom, was fatally wounded, during a violent confrontation, with an arresting team from the Flying Squad Unit at Salaama – Munyonyo,” Enanga said.
Mwanje was a 28-year-old man who, according to police findings, used a motorcycle UEM 418Z to transport kidnapped children. Police say Mwanje would visit homes disguising himself as a soccer coach for male youngsters. Some parents would trust him and he would wait for them to be absent from their homes in order to kidnap the children.
For instance, Mwanje on November 19, visited Muyingo’s parents, knocked on the gate, and introduced himself as a professional football trainer. At the moment, Muyingo’s mother, Shamim Nakawungo, was the only adult at home. She asked Mwanje to call the boy’s father Abdu Bulega and also provided the telephone contact to him.
Mwanje left the home but stayed within the vicinity as she waited even for the mother to leave. At 3 pm when Nakawungo had also left the home, she received a call from Mwanje informing them that Muyingo had been kidnapped and the culprits y needed two million shillings if they still needed him alive. The parents succumbed to the ransom demands and they paid.