‘Kidnapped’ Congolese Woman Resurfaces, Police Blame ISO

Police have said that Nganga Bibiche Bola, a Congolese female who was reportedly kidnapped has resurfaced.

Five days ago, reports emerged on social media alleging that Nganga Bola had been kidnapped, after her house maid reported to Police that some men had taken her. Bola had been supervising her construction site in Makindye when the incident occurred.

According to a statement issued by Police Spokesperson, SSP Emilian Kayima on Wednesday, the woman showed up at her home in Lukuki in Makindye division yesterday afternoon.

Police say that she was in the hands of Internal Security Organization (ISO) and that her captors were dressed in military attire.

“She claims that she was kidnapped by unknown people dressed in military fatigue with assault rifles and was in detention since then up till today 28th Feb 2018 after 5 days,” said Kayima.

Police say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding Nganga’s abduction and to establish who were the kidnappers.

“We shall continue to work closely to stamp out such acts and all acts of criminality to guarantee citizens safety and security”.

Bola is the seventh person to be kidnapped around Kampala in a period of two months. Only days ago, another lady, Susan Magara was killed three weeks after she was kidnapped by unknown people.

However, the account given by Police in regards to the captors of Bola seems contradictory. On one side, the statement by Police says she was being held by ISO while on the other, they say her abductors are unknown.

It is unclear whether the allegation that she was under ISO detention and attributed to the woman was indeed her statement or made up by Police itself. Further questions arise on how an ordinary Congolese woman managed to confirm with certainty that her captors were ISO operatives if all she saw was military attire.

It should be remebered that ever since CMI and ISO began to crack down on members of the Police affiliated rogue group, Boda Boda 2010 who face murder charges, the Police developed bad blood claiming the IGP is being witch hunted by other security agencies.

Recently, IGP decried the criticism being mounted against Police for its incompetence, and asked Ugandans to judge Police by the same standards as other security agencies.

Both the military (CMI) and ISO gained public trust in the wake of their operations against rogue Senior Police officers and the notorious Boda Boda 2010 elements who the IGP had just defended in Parliament as “useful in the fight against crime and walk to work.”

Asked by journalists why members of the group were armed, the IGP advised anyone to lead him to the armed ones so they are disarmed. However, when Boda Boda 2010 head Kitatta was arrested by CMI, he was found with a gun and and an armed police guard.

Police recently admitted to lacking the capacity to exhaustively investigate murders, putting the success rate at a negligible 2%.

Police Deputy Director for Human Resource Department, Mr Felix Ndyomugyenyi said that of the 4,500 murder cases committed in the last four years, only less than 100 have been successfully investigated and culprits convicted.

He attributed this failure rate to lack of expertise in investigating homicide cases and understaffing of detectives.

This worrying incapacity places the safety of ordinary Ugandans in the balance and one can only wonder how bad the problem of insecurity can get. Unfortunately, while the security agencies continue to bicker on whose mandate it is to do what, it is the citizens that continue to pay the higher price.

Incidents of kidnap have aroused fear among Kampalans and the rest of the citizens on the state of security in the country while government is on the spot to explain among other issues why telcos are still selling unregistered simcards. In the case of Magara, it is said that the kidnappers used over 15 untraceable simcards to contact the family for ransom.