Rwanda National Police has rescued a two year old boy kidnapped from Burundi and sneaked into Rwanda, last week.
The boy was kidnapped last Friday from their home in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura apparently by the houseboy identified as Samson Nshimirimana, who connived with a Rwandan man, Anselme Nshimiyimana, who was renting one of the boy’s parent’s houses.
The jolly boy was rescued from the two alleged kidnappers on Tuesday evening in a Kigali-bound public vehicle along Huye-Kigali highway.
The two suspects were also arrested as investigations still underway.
It was a moment of joy on Tuesday night at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru as the mother Beatha Uwineza, who had traveled from Burundi a day before, was reunited with her son.
“This is a miracle; I never thought this would happen this fast…because the kidnappers had threatened us that they would harm our son if we don’t follow their instructions,” said the overwhelmed mother.
They boy is the couple’s second born.
On the fateful day, Uwineza said, she gave her son to their Burundian housekeeper to take him to school, as a norm, which is located about five minutes walk from their home in Gihosha commune.
“That was the last time I had from either Nshimirimana or my son. But after like two hours, Nshimirimana’s friends in the neighbourhood came to our home and wondered why he had not returned as it was unusual,” Uwineza narrated.
Nshimirimana had worked for the couple for nine months.
“I had paid him his salary a day before and I thought that maybe he had gone shopping. The boy’s father, on his way to work at about 11:00 am, decided to pass at the school only to be shocked with the news that they had not seen either our son or Nshimirimana that day.”
“We had not heard of any accident in the neighbourhood, so that was ruled out. We started the search, reported to local authorities and Police, although it didn’t yield anything. In the middle of the night, the boy’s father received a message sent from a Rwandan line, apparently by Anselme, telling us that our son was safe with them and that we would see him again at a cost of US$2000.”
“He told us that if we don’t bring that money by Monday mid-morning, they would take the boy to Malawi and we will never seen him again.”
This prompted the mother to travel to Rwanda on Monday and lodged the case at Remera Police station, although at this time police had already started tracking and trailing the suspects, who had claimed to be in Kigali.
The duo was arrested at a roadblock in Musambira en route to Kigali from Butare, with the boy.
This was after the boy’s mother supposedly agreed to their terms to pay them the ransom as requested, to buy time and lure them in a Police trap.
Nshimirimana claimed that he was approached by Anselme, who worked as a carpenter in Burundi, to steal the child as a way of forcing the parents pay them the money they owed them.
He alleged that the couple had not paid him for the nine months he had worked for them.
“Anselme approached me with this idea, saying that the boy’s father had also refused to pay him 4 million Burundian francs he owed him. I agreed and that’s how we decided to take away their son and passed through an illegal border to cross to Rwanda since we had no travel documents for the child,” said Nshimirimana.
The boy’s mother, Uwineza, however, dismissed the duo’s claims adding that they owed no money to either of them.
According to Uwineza, they had even paid their housekeeper an extra Bfw10, 000 on top of his usual monthly salary of Bfw30, 000, after he approached them saying he had an urgent issue he wanted to solve.
As for Anselme, Uwineza said they never had any deal with him and that they were even treating him as a member of the family.
Police spokesperson, Chief Supt. Celestin Twahirwa said that after the duo kidnapped the boy, they started threatening and pressurizing his parents for a ransom.
“Although the boy’s mother traveled to Rwanda and reported the case, Interpol Kigali had already been alerted by their counterparts of Burundi. This was a systematic planned move by these two people to solicit money from the couple,” CSP Twahirwa said.
He reminded parents to always be on watch-out for their children instead of trusting them with maids.
“This woman was able to get her son in time because they were quick to report to police, and it’s always wise to be quick to report any incident for prompt and timely response.”
Under article 258 of the penal code, any person who kidnaps or removes a child out of the country shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of seven to ten years and a fine of Rwf500, 0 00 to Rwf5 million.
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