Six-year-old used as bait to steal phone from boda boda rider

KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Police at Nateete Division in Kampala are investigating circumstances under which, a six-year-old child was kidnapped and used as bait to steal a mobile phone from a boda boda rider in Kisenyi, a busy city suburb.

The victim identified as Sseginuja Mohammed son of Nassazi Sarah, 22, was kidnapped from her parent’s home in Mutundwe-Mbawo zone, Rubaga division in Kampala.

According to Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga, preliminary reports indicate that the child victim was lured by a male stranger, who offered to go and buy him a bicycle as a birthday gift and disappeared with him to an unknown location.

“The facts gathered indicate that the victim was lured by a male stranger, who offered to go and buy him a bicycle, as a birthday gift at the nearest shop. That’s how he disappeared. An immediate search was conducted in the neighbourhood but all in vain and the matter was reported to police,” said Enanga in a Monday evening police statement.

Enanga says the mother of the child reported a case of a missing child and an immediate search was conducted in the neighbourhood but all in vain.

However, it was later discovered that the victim had been abandoned with a boda boda rider at Kisenyi, from whom the stranger had borrowed a phone in order to make a call but later disappeared with it and left the victim as a bait with the rider.

Enanga said the boy was recovered by the area police reunited him with his parents. He urged the public to be vigilant as the new trick is becoming a common habit, especially in the Rubaga division.

“The new trick is becoming common in the Rubaga division and we would like to caution members of the public, to desist from handing over their mobile phones, wherever, a person approaches them with a young child,” cautioned Enanga.

“We further encourage them, to interview the victim and find out, if they are related to the person with them or not. In this very instance, the bodaboda rider remained with the child, not knowing that he was a kidnap victim,” he added.