KAMPALA
A new trick is being employed by robbers in Kampala city and metropolitan areas using young, cheaper and more easily controlled children to lure unsuspecting residents and rob them.
Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson warns the public of this new trick which criminals have switched to as a distraction.
The warnings follow an incident in which a Boda Boda rider in Kampala was robbed of his mobile phone by a passanger and abandoned him with a kidnapped child.
It is alleged that the suspect kidnapped Sseginuja Mohammed, 6-year-old boy from Mutundwe-Mbawo zone in Rubaga division, Kampala district after he offered to buy him a toy bicycle as birthday gift.
A case of missing child was reported to police by the victim’s mother, Sarah Nassazi, 22 after a long fruitless search in the neighbourhood.
Enanga noted that the victim was later recovered in Kisenyi Kampala where his kidnapper abandoned him with a boda boda rider, and was re-united with his family.
“A stranger borrowed a mobile phone from the boda rider in order to make a phone call but he disappeared with it and abandoned the victim as a bait with the bodaboda rider,” he said.
According to police, using children is becoming common in Rubaga division cautioning members of the public to lookout and desist from giving out their mobile phones to strangers guising to make phone calls.
Police further condemned the use of children by criminals to defraud people stating that its an inhuman and a violation of children’s rights. The suspect has not been identified and efforts to arrest him are in place.
