How police team rescued kidnapped girl

A six-year old, snatched by kidnappers from a popular Nairobi church has been rescued by police and re-united with her family.

Kelly Muthoni was kidnapped from Sunday School at Mavuno Church, Belle Vue in Nairobi’s South C area on September 30 at 11am, in a criminal incident which terrified church-attending parents.

She was rescued from a two-bedroomed house in Kariobangi North in Nairobi’s sprawling Eastlands where she had been held for eight days. The kidnappers wanted Sh5 million.

Kelly’s father, Mr Anthony Maina, 39, recounted to the Nation the harrowing events leading to the rescue of his daughter in what he describes as an unforgettable reunion.

As was routine for this family on Sunday mornings, Mr Maina drove his family to church for the morning service from 9 am to 11 am.

“We dropped Kelly and her 12 and four-year-old sister and a cousin who was visiting us at the Mavuno Church Sunday School, and my wife and I proceeded to the main service,” her father said.

“At the end of the service at 11am, I handed the identification tags to my wife to pick up the children as I stayed back to talk to a few friends,” Mr Maina added.

Every child is registered at Sunday School and a tag is given to the parents and they are required to produce it when picking the child.

However, when her mother went to pick the four children at the end of the main service she was informed that her daughter had been picked up by two ladies who claimed they were taking her to her father.

The parents alerted the church management and organised search parties who helped look for Kelly within the church compound to no avail.

“It puzzled us who could have picked our daughter yet we had the safety tags with us,” said Mr Maina. Then came the chilling phone call.

“My wife got a phone call at 11.40am and the caller said he had been sent to terrorise us and that he had our daughter in his custody. Then he disconnected the call.”

“Ten minutes later the same caller asked us to send Sh100,000 for Kelly’s upkeep before the kidnappers settled on the ransom amount,” he added.

To confirm to the horrified parents that the kidnappers indeed had their daughter, they put her on the phone and allowed her to speak to the mother.

A few minutes later the caller sent a message with details of the phone number where the “upkeep” money would be wired to. The case was immediately reported to Industrial Area Police station and an investigation started.

Phone calls demanding ransom money became the order of the day, and night, and for Kelly’s parents the world was shattered. But even as they frantically demanded money, the police net was closing on the gangsters.

Makadara Divisional Criminal Investigation Officer Zack Nangulu told the Nation that it took 12 officers eight days to track down and rescue the six-year-old girl.

“The kidnappers had a calculated plan and network because some of them communicated with the parents, others withdrew the money sent while another group kept the girl at a house in Kariobangi North,” Mr Nangulu said.

The initial phone call was traced to Kamiti Maximum Prison but the money was sent to a different number and withdrawn in Umoja estate. According to the police, the ring leader of the kidnap group is a prisoner at Kamiti.

But there was a wide network of criminals working with him and a careful plan intended to prevent detection. Once the mastermind received the money, it is sent to other members of the kidnap gang who then withdraw it.

Police were able to trace transactions and track down mobile phone signals as far as Nyeri and Kitui where some of the money was withdrawn.

However, the person in whose name the “ransom” number is registered is in is Kapsabet town, suggesting that the criminals used fake identity cards to register their phones.

“Initially we deposited Sh20,000 on Wednesday and another Sh15,000 on Thursday to the number as instructed,” Mr Maina added By Friday, the family had sent a total of Sh40,000 as the stage was set for the rescue on Sunday afternoon led by Mr Nangulu.

“Our leads took us to a two-bed roomed house at a two-storey building and we set our ambush at the house where we believed Kelly was being held,” Mr Nangulu said.

As Kelly’s father stayed outside the building while police officers searched the building and found her in the company of another child and a woman.

Police said they expected to charge five suspects on Wednesday morning.