Archival Sense
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 16, 2025
- 576
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The children, identified as Mugabane Isaiah, a Top Class pupil at Own Fall Primary School, and his brother Mugabane Jeremiah, a pupil at Mwiri Primary School, were taken at about 7pm on Monday while their parents were returning from work in Jinja City.
Their father, Patrick Mugabane, said he and his wife had stopped briefly at Nile Town Centre to buy household items when he received a phone call from a neighbour warning him that something was wrong at their home.
He said he immediately called his wife and urged her to hurry home. On the way, another neighbour called and informed him that two of his children had been taken.
When the couple arrived, they found neighbours gathered outside the house.
The children had been left under the care of housemaids while their parents were at work. According to Mugabane, the maids told him that the children had been watching television in the sitting room while they were in another part of the house getting dressed after taking a shower.
The maids reportedly heard the children crying and rushed into the sitting room, where they found several men dressed in black and wearing masks.
Mugabane said one of the attackers was armed with a gun and ordered the maids to remain silent. One of the women reportedly attempted to escape and release dogs kept at the home, but the attackers threatened to kill her if she did so.
The attackers then allegedly locked the maids inside a bedroom before returning to the sitting room, where they found the children.
Mugabane said the attackers initially attempted to take three children, but one of them resisted and bit one of the assailants on the hand.
The child was reportedly abandoned and managed to run back to the room where the maids had been locked.
The family has since been left waiting anxiously for news about the two boys.
Their mother, Fiona Nanono, said the kidnappers had not contacted the family or demanded a ransom by the time of reporting.
“They have not called us, but we are waiting for them,” Nanono said, adding that the family was worried because of reports of kidnappers demanding large sums of money from victims’ families.
Buikwe Resident District Commissioner David Matovu said security agencies had launched efforts to trace the children and apprehend the suspects.
Matovu said preliminary information indicated that the attackers were armed with two guns and two knives.
“The search is already on. We are soon launching an operation,” he said.
Security agencies are expected to intensify the search for the missing children and investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack.