How pilot cop rescued two minors from suspected kidnapper
Chief Inspector Justine Ouya, an aircraft engineer at the National Police Service Airwing on Sunday rescued two children in a case of kidnapping in Lang’ata area, Nairobi.
The girls identified as Judy Nyakio and Teresia Njeri, aged three and four years respectively, had been lured from their home in Muthurwa on Sunday evening as they played by a man who has been identified as Jackson Mutinda, 31.
The girls, according to a statement from DCI Director George Kinoti, were rescued from their captor, who was ferrying them to an unknown destination.
The suspect was arrested at Shell petrol station along Lang’ara road by the officer who had just landed from a troops resupply mission and was walking along Langata road, when she came across the man holding the two girls by their hands.
“Mutinda was arrested at shell petrol station along Lang’ata road, as he walked with the girls to a yet to be established location. He was walking with the minors towards Karen direction,” Kinoti said.
“After observing him and the little girls briefly, her (Ouya) intuition as a police officer coupled by her motherly instincts led her to being suspicious. She immediately stopped the man and interrogated him,” the DCI boss added.
He said Ouya spoke to the minors and established that the man was not their father as he had alleged.
After interrogating the suspect, the officer discovered that he had lured the two minors from their home in Muthurwa, promising to buy them a soda.
The officers managed to trace the girls’ parents who were desperately searching for them. The suspect is currently in custody at Lang’ata police station, being processed for arraignment on Child Trafficking charges.
In the past months, there has been increased cases of kidnappings of children. In several cases, missing child have been found dead. Missing Child Kenya, a non-governmental organisation, says there’s growing concern that a criminal network could be stealing the children.
The most heartbreaking case is that of 20-year-old Masden Milimo Wanjala, who was arrested in July in Buru buru in connection with the disappearance of the two boys in Shauri Moyo. The suspect would eventually lead detectives to a thicket in Spring Valley estate, Westlands, where he had dumped the minors’ bodies.
The suspect also confessed to killing and burying more than 10 other children in shallow graves in different parts of Nairobi.