Detectives yesterday rescued five-year-old Alvin Kwere who was kidnapped on October 7 from Starehe estate, Thika town.
One of the kidnappers was shot dead by the police at Kimuchu near Juja, where the boy had been held. Alvin was unharmed and in good health. He called the kidnapper and his woman companion ‘uncle’ and ‘auntie’, police said.
Alvin was taken hostage from a church compound. He was with his playmate, Liam Makumi, 6. Makumi was released, with a note with a phone number.
The figure Sh526,000 was scribbled on it. Hours after the abduction, his parents’ worst fears were confirmed after called the anonymous contact and were instructed to send the money or thei son would be murdered.
“The man said he’d send our son’s head in a box if we failed to send the money,” mother Grace Wanjiru said. The kidnappers threatened to starve Alvin.
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The family reported to police. Meanwhile they and their friends began a frantic search and started sending the ransom bit by bit.
By yesterday, a relative disclosed that the family had sent more than Sh100,000.
Detectives tracking the kidnappers’ phone signals for weeks zeroed in on the their location — a single-room house in Kimuchu village.
They laid an ambush and shot dead the suspect. The kidnapper was armed with a panga and hit one officer’s gun. They shot him dead.
The boy was dazed as police rescued him and handed him to his family.
Kiambu county police commander Adiel Nyange said a female companion of the slain suspect has been arrested. She had been living with Alvin and the suspect.
The only thing Alvin could say was that he was living with his uncle (kidnapper) and a little child, with whom he shared a bed. They used to eat tomatoes, sukumawiki and ugali, he said.