News
Boy, 2, back home after two-day kidnap ordeal
PONCIANO ODONGO | NATION Mr Julius Kung’u Njenga and his wife Esther Wanjiku at Kitengela police station on Tuesday after their son, Belvid Njenga, was kidnapped. The boy was rescued from the abductors’ hideout on Thursday night. NATION
Posted Saturday, February 2 2013 at 00:30
In Summary
- Househelp and lover arrested with two other suspects they conspired with to hold toddler hostage, demanding a ransom of Sh1 million
It took five detectives, family members and three mobile service providers a harrowing two days to rescue a two-year-old boy from the clutches of kidnappers.
Belvid Njenga, who was abducted in Kitengela town on Tuesday afternoon, was found at the kidnappers’ hideout in Ruiru, Thika, on Thursday night.
The boy was allegedly snatched from the househelp as she was talking to a man said to be her boyfriend outside his parents’ house.
The man has been detained as he is suspected to have colluded with the worker and planned the kidnapping.
Suspects’ hideout
The kidnappers were demanding a Sh1 million ransom.
Area police boss Simon Kiragu on Thursday night confirmed that three men and a woman had been arrested with the assistance of the family and three mobile service providers — Safaricom, Airtel and yuMobile.
He said police also seized a Toyota saloon in Nairobi’s Zimmerman Estate.
Mr Kiragu said the police traced the car the gangsters used to the estate where they got leads to the suspects’ hideout.
He said the suspects were seized at a farmhouse at the intersection of Thika Road and the bypass on the way to Utawala.
Mobile phones used by the suspects to demand the ransom were also found.
Mr Kiragu said the househelp was arrested after her explanation on how the child was forcibly taken from her was found to be not plausible.
He said she could not explain where the man she had been talking to about 500 metres from the house had gone to when the boy was snatched.
After interrogating the woman for hours, her statement implicated the boyfriend in the abduction racket. He was arrested and detained at Kitengela Police Station.
They are expected to be arraigned in court soon.
The owner of the car helped police identify the four alleged kidnappers.
It was a time of endless agony and hopelessness for young couple Julius Njenga, 33, and his wife Esther Wanjiku, 29.
“It was like being to hell and back, I was not myself,” said the father.
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