LUSAKA’S Kabanana residents yesterday were treated to some mid-morning drama when armed police raided a house to rescue two children who had been kidnapped by their nanny and her boyfriend.
The house where the children were found is in the same area where a woman was three years ago killed and cut into pieces, stuffed in a suitcase and shoved under a bed.
Police only recovered remains after a month following a tip from the husband’s brother. It was also in this same place where a photographer was killed and another woman killed and body tossed in a graveyard.
Luckily for the children, their fate has turned out differently.
The children were reported missing by their father, Mr Dharmesh Bhai on Monday who indicated that the maid had taken them and the car.
Narrating the discovery of the kidnapped children, Ms Mwanza of Kabanana told the Daily Nation crew that her two-room house was rented by a man who claimed to have arrived from Copperbelt.
“This man was breathless and said he needed a house as he was very tired having travelled from Copperbelt and that he was working for an Indian man,” Ms Mwanza said.
He told her that he was looking for a house and when he was asked why he was breathless, he said he was tired as he had just arrived from Copperbelt.
When she told him the house was K450, he paid cash and went away.
“He said he only had a mattress but would bring other things later,” Ms Mwanza said when she asked him where his possessions where.
When they wanted to remove the sofa which was in the room, he asked that they leave it there because he only had a mattress with him.
He later went and came back around 17:00 hours but drove over the flowers, which surprised the landlord who asked him if it was his car.
“He struggled to get the car inside the yard but failed and left it by the side road and this really upset him because he particularly wanted a house in a wall fence so that his car could be parked inside,” she said.
He failed to get the car inside the yard and just packed outside. The car had tinted windows.
Unknown to the landlord, the car had other occupants who were sneaked into the house when the landlord had settled for the night.
But the kidnappers had not reckoned with the curiosity of children who wanted to see the neighbours and were so shocked to see the black man with two women, two coloured children and one dark child.
The children immediately went and reported to the landlord the part about the coloured children the new tenant had.
In the morning, the landlord found her tenant locking his house and he left before she could ask him about the children he was allegedly keeping. Around 15:00 hours she found him and asked him why he was locking the house, but he insisted that he did not want to be robbed because his place was close to the road.
Ms Mwanza did not think much about the coloured children in the house and went out, only to be called that police had surrounded her house and broken into her new tenant’s place.
I was told that the C5 police unit had gained entry to the new tenant’s house and found children inside with two women and another child.
When she came back, she found they had been taken to the police.
But other eye witness said the woman (maid) after she was beaten by the police, confessed that she had no intention of killing the two children but just wanted more money from their dad who was her boss. She allegedly claimed her salary was too little.
The man, believed to be her boyfriend was also picked up but did not say much despite a few slaps from the cops.
The two children who have been in the media and social media as their dad looked for them, were handed over to the parent.
And Zambia Police spokesperson Esther Katongo has said the three suspects are being questioned by police for abduction.
She said in a statement that police also recovered the motor vehicle which was reported stolen.
Earlier, Mr Bhai said his two children were allegedly stolen by the maid who was employed a month ago from an advert on Facebook.
He said the woman also stole a Toyota Allion registration number BAG 5479 which she used to transport the children aged nine and 12 years old. Mr Bhai is an employee at Lusaka Pharmacy.
