THE kidnappers of Khan Kakama, a one-and-a-half-year-old baby, wanted to extort money from the parents, the Police said yesterday.Although the parents paid a sh30m ransom to the kidnappers, they nevertheless killed the boy. The body was recovered in a city suburb on Monday.
This has baffled the Police who are now investigating why they murdered the boy despite the payment.
“The motive of kidnap was to get money. We are now investigating the motive of the murder,” said the commander of the Special Investigations Unit, Hillary Odoch.
“The suspects confessed to killing the boy but said they kidnapped him to get money,” said Odoch.
Odoch said the postmortem had been carried on the body but he would not say the results.
The Police treating the case as “murder” and not “child sacrifice” since the body parts were intact.
In the meantime, the Police have arrested seven suspects over the murder.
Detectives yesterday continued interrogating the two suspects, Godfrey Tumusiime and Brian Ssajjabi Junior, who led the detectives to the discovery of the body in Kifumbira zone, Kamwokya, on Monday.
Tumusiime was arrested in Bushenyi before leading detectives to Ssajjabi.
Police in Bushenyi is said to have made four more arrests yesterday, raising the number of suspects to seven.
Those arrested yesterday are Tumusiime’s mother, Jadress Kebirambi, his two brothers, Anthony Ashaba and Wilson Mwesigye, and Tumusiime’s friend Richard Kafureeka.
The Bushenyi criminal investigations chief, Ronald Bogere, said Kebirambi was arrested for obstructing investigations.
“Kebirambi is stubborn. She hid her son and told us that he had gone to Fort Portal. She later told us that he had travelled to Kampala, which was not true,” Bogere said.
The operation carried out in Bushenyi was commanded by officers from the Police headquarters in Kampala.
They cordoned off the village on Sunday night in a futile hunt for Tumusiime. They then arrested Mwesigye, whom they used to track down Tumusiime.
Mwesigye is said to have lured Tumusiime by telling him that their mother had been admitted at the KIU teaching hospital in Kampala
Kamukama was a son to Sven Karekaho, an employee with the Uganda Revenue Authority and Naome Karekaho, the spokesperson of the National Environment Management Authority.
The Police yesterday submitted body parts of the toddler to the Government Analytical Laboratory for foresic tests, which Odoch said would not take long.
The tests are to identify the child, establish the probable cause of death and also furnish the investigations with scientific evidence, often crucial in the prosecution of homicide cases.
“The parents recognised the clothes their son was wearing but we need to get evidence to support us in court,” he said.
Speaking from his Bugolobi residence yesterday, Karekaho dismissed earlier media reports that the baby’s private parts were missing.
“The body was intact with no parts missing,” he said.
A somber mood enveloped the residence, as relatives and friends streamed in to commiserate with the parents.
Karekaho, who looked composed and occasionally spoke on his mobile phone, sat with other mourners on plastic garden chairs under a tree.
His wife remained inside the house.
“It may not be possible to see her. She is devastated,” Karekaho said, adding that a funeral service will be held today at 10:00am at All Saints Cathedral. Burial will be on Thursday in Rukungiri.
Meanwhile, Kampala detectives who had planned to return to the scene of the crime to continue with investigations, called off the trip following reports that irate residents were planning to lynch the suspects.
The Police, led by the Kampala East CID chief, Sisye Kiirya, had planned to search Ssajjabbi’s house where the boy is said to have been killed.
