Woman faces jail for 'tarnishing' Queen Elizabeth National Park name in fake kidnap

According to reports, joint security forces have been investigating an incident in which a woman identified as Zainabu Karungi staged a self-kidnap to extort money from her parents.

KASESE - A woman who called her relatives in distress saying she had been kidnapped for ransom inside Queen Elizabeth National Park has been remanded to prison for faking it all.

According to reports, joint security forces have been investigating an incident in which a woman identified as Zainabu Karungi staged a self-kidnap to extort money from her parents.

But police now say the action of the 32-year-old brings the image of one of the country's largest game parks into disrepute.

According to reports, the 32-year-old businesswoman from Kasese Municipality's Railway Cell staged her kidnapping on February 8 and called her mother, claiming that she and another female victim, had been arrested by eight armed men near Kikorongo within the Queen Elizabeth National Park, which was not true.

She claimed that her captors were demanding money in order to set her free.

“It was wrong of her to misuse the image of the national park,” said the police upon her arrest.

Due to the sensitivity of the matter, police spokesperson Fred Enanga revealed that when security agencies learnt about this report, they dispatched an elite team which used advanced surveillance technology to track the woman.

She was located at a hiding place in a room along Margherita Street in Kasese Municipality from where she was arrested.

It is said that the suspect claimed to have wanted money to recapitalise her business in Kasese town, hence giving false information to relatives and police.

She was arraigned before the Kasese Magistrates' Court on Monday and remanded to prison on three charges including self-kidnap, giving false information to police and miss use of the name of the Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The park in the Western Uganda spanning the districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Rubirizi, and Rukungiri, is home to 618 bird species which is the 6th highest diversity in the world and the highest in Africa.

Last October, a British couple on a honeymoon was killed by ADF rebels who had sneaked into the park from the jungles of eastern DR Congo, invoking the wrath of President Museveni who had security operatives trail them down for justice.

But it is from Kimberley Sue Endecott that Kasese's Karungi appears to have picked ideas. On April 2, 2019, Endecott, 35, was abducted by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border with DR Congo.

The American tourist was abducted alongside her tour guide Jean-Paul Mirenge with the kidnappers later demanding a ransom of $500,000 for her release.

Wild Frontiers Safaris, the agency that was handling the tourist, was later quoted by the media as saying the pair were freed after a ransom was paid to their kidnappers.