The Criminal Investigations Directorate ( CID) have rescued a 14 year old girl who had disappeared for 5 years since 2018.
According to police, the victim identified as Betany Ndimurugi disappeared at the age of nine in April 2018 from Asili memorial nursary and primary school.
"We want to greatly commend our detectives from CID headquaters whoball along have been actively investigating the disappearance of this girl victim," said police spokesperson Fred Enanga.
While addressing the press on Monday, Enanga revealed that Betany Ndimurungi was studying in primary four when she was picked by her biological mother called Mercy Kilande who had seperated from the father identified as Tadeo Ruzinda Ntare.
It is said that Ntare took his daughter Ndimurungi to this school while the mother had relocated to South Africa after their separation.
Enanga said that investigations indicated that when the mother came from South Africa that year (2018), she went up to the school and picked the girl and disappeared with her without informing the father.
"We established that the mother returned to South Africa but without the victim. She left the victim hidden with a relative at unknown place but a serious search for the girl yielded results almost after 5 years when the victim was traced on September 22, at the home of a one Phiona Rukundo in Manyangwa village, Gayaza in Wakiso district," Enanga told the press.
He said that the victim has been staying without both parents for the last five years adding that "on recovery, we could not hand over her to the father neither could we leave her with the caretaker and we are now protecting her in one of the shelter homes where her welfare, counseling and child management is being done."
Meanwhile, a statement has been recorded from Rukundo Phiona who told police that she was given the victim to look after by the mother who is in South Africa.
The police spokesperson said that efforts are underway to record a statement from the mother of the victim and also that of the father who has been searching for her daughter for the past five years.
It has been established that non of them had custody orders for the child after separation and it is against this backdrop that police is forwarding this file to the DPP for legal guidance basing on the circumstances.
