The Uganda police has denied reports that the freedom of American tourist Kimberly Sue and her Ugandan tour guide, Jean Paul Mirenge was only secured after a ransom of $30,000 (about Shs 112m) got paid to the kidnappers.
Four armed men last week kidnapped the duo from Queen Elizabeth national park on April 2. Using Kimberly's mobile phone, the kidnappers demanded for a ransom of $500,000 (about Shs 1.8bn).
According to security sources, after receiving the money, the kidnappers called the tour company, Wild Frontiers Safaris Uganda and directed its workers where to find Kimberley and Mirenge. But police spokesperson Fred Enanga says the duo was released after a joint elite force threatened to attack the kidnappers hideout.
"As police we don't give ransom and if ransom was paid to kidnappers that can be clarified by [Kimberly's] family," Enanga said.
At the time of the kidnap, Kimberly and other tourists who were robbed but left unharmed were driving a Wild Frontiers truck. The kidnappers walked away with the car keys. US secretary of state Michael Pompeo last week said the US doesn't or encourage payment ransom money for the release of American citizens as this would only lead to more kidnaps.
Meanwhile, police couldn't explain the fate of six Ugandans including a 12-year-old child who were also recently kidnapped near the Ishasha Uganda-DRC border.
US President Donald Trump has used his Twitter account to demand that authorities in Uganda find the kidnappers and bring them to justice, otherwise he said, Uganda will remain unsafe for tourists. However several social media users in his country and elsewhere have gone on to point it out to him that with the gun violence in the US, Uganda is actually safer place even for the Americans.
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