Police Hunt Seven Suspects in Nyanama Child Kidnap

Katwe Police have launched a manhunt for seven individuals accused of kidnapping a 3-year-old child, in what investigators suspect was an act of retaliation.  

The suspects are said to have been victims of a failed overseas job recruitment deal linked to the child’s father. 

The incident happened over the weekend in Nyanama, a Kampala suburb, when three women and four men reportedly stormed the home of Denis Opedi, a director of Ezinunula Tours and Travel, a recruitment agency located along Entebbe Road. 

According to police, the assailants broke into the house around 3:00 a.m., demanding to know Opedi’s whereabouts. When informed that neither he nor his wife was home, the group allegedly turned violent and took the toddler instead. The child’s mother, Agnes Atiano, 27, had left the baby in the care of her 19-year-old sister-in-law, Catherine Abbo, while she worked at Movit Company upcountry. 

“When the attackers realised the parents weren’t home, they decided to take the child,” said Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police Spokesperson. 

Owoyesigyire revealed that after the abduction, the kidnappers contacted Atiano, demanding 7 million Shillings and warning that she would never see her child again if she failed to pay. When she reached out to her husband, he reportedly told her he knew the individuals involved: former clients who had been demanding refunds from his company. 

“This is an unusual kind of kidnapping,” Owoyesigyire explained. “At first, it appeared to be a ransom case, but it later emerged that the suspects were people who had paid money to the recruitment firm for jobs abroad that never materialised.”He added that Atieno immediately reported the case to Katwe Police Division, and a manhunt for the suspects is ongoing.

Preliminary police investigations indicate that Ezinunula Tours and Travel may have defrauded several clients before shutting down operations. The victims, unable to trace Opedi and his partners, are believed to have resorted to this desperate act in an attempt to reclaim their money. Owoyesigyire appealed for calm and urged the suspects to release the child unharmed.  

The 2024 Annual Police Crime Report shows that police recorded 159 cases of child kidnappings last year, most driven by ransom demands, human trafficking, revenge, or ritual motives. 

Authorities say the Nyanama case is a worrying trend in which victims of fraud take the law into their own hands, with devastating consequences for innocent families.