MOMBASA, Kenya, Jun 8 – Kenya police rescued an 11-year-old boy from his kidnappers on Sunday and recovered a Sh1 million ransom which had been paid to his captors.
A couple in whose house the boy was found was also arrested and is assisting detectives with investigations into the kidnapping racket, police said.
They were arrested on Sunday night when police raided a house in Nyali where the boy has been held since his capture on Thursday.
“The suspects thought they were too smart and they asked the ransom to be delivered to them. That is when we nabbed them,” Coast Provincial Police chief Mr King’ori Mwangi said.
Mr Mwangi said the Oshwal Academy pupil was kidnapped on Thursday morning while on the way to school.
“He had not been seen since then but his parents reported that they had been contacted by people who claimed responsibility and demanded money,” he said.
He could not reveal the strategy the police used to trick the suspects to receive the money only saying “it was a well laid down trap which worked well for those crooks.”
Mr Mwangi said “that was the first case of its kind in Mombasa.”
“We have not handled kidnapping cases but now it appears there is a group of people introducing it here (Coast),” he said “They are not going to do it here.”
Cases of kidnapping are common in Nairobi where at least two cases are reported weekly, according to police.
They are mainly common in the Eastlands part of the city where children of parents thought to be financially-stable are abducted and ransom demanded.
Last month, five men whom police described as prime suspects were arrested and a young boy rescued in Kayole estate.
He had been held captive for close to two weeks.
Kenya Police has categorised kidnapping as one of the new trends of emerging crimes posing a serious threat to the country’s security, according to police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe.
“It is one of the challenges we are facing and special attention has been put in place to eliminate the vice,” he said.
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