Holland Arrests KKL Kids

By Alfred Wasike
and Phillip Corry
THE Dutch police have found the two Kampala Kids League (kkl) players who disappeared minutes after their team won the Regio Haarlem Cup in Heemstede, Netherlands on July 26.

“My God! The Dutch police at Gronigen has found the kids in the north of Holland. What a relief for us all,” the chairman of the Ugandan community in Holland, David Kirunda, said yesterday.

Baby Cranes Fahad Ssekandi and Daniel Serunkuuma vanished in Heemstede while their team-mates were boarding a bus to the airport for their return flight.

Kirunda said, “They are okay. We are making efforts to bring them back to Kampala. It is a relief for all Ugandans especially those in Holland because they have been looking tirelessly for these boys.”

“We have their passports. We are talking to the airlines for fresh air tickets to send the children back home,” Kirunda said.

Kirunda is based in Haarlem but works in Amsterdam, some 25 miles west to the North Sea.

It is not yet clear what the two were doing when the police discovered them.

According to KKL’s July 2003 Euro-tour special edition newsletter, Sekandi was born in Kawempe, a Kampala city suburb, in November 1989 and goes to Kawanda Secondary School in Wakiso district.

Serunkuuma was born in Kampala in December 1989 and goes to Bubajjwe Primary School.

A police officer at Duin Rand in Haarlem (Holland) said, “It was a very serious thing for the children to disappear. We are arranging to return them home.”

Kirunda said, “I had never heard of such an incident for all the years I have spent here. I went to the police three times to record statements. The entire community joined the hunt for them. It was a terrible mistake by the boys and it would have jeopardised their future.”

KKL commissioner Trevor Dudley said, “This is great news. We’ve been liaising with police in Holland, Sweden and other countries to try and trace these boys. Their disappearance could have jeopardised the future for Ugandan players in Europe.”
Kirunda and Alice Mamuna, a Ghanaian professional athlete-turned Dutch, were supposed to take the boys to Aerdenhont beach in the neighbourhood but instead took them to a luncheon at Mamuna’s house in Haarlem.

Mamuna, who watched the KKL’s excellent performance, said, “I brought one of the boys back. This is the reason why I had to bring him back because I did not want to have problems.”

“I feel pity for the boys. I am an African. I admired the way they played. I cannot smuggle them. I could bring my own relatives. I’m ready for the police,” she said.
Matthieu Peters, the Royal Netherlands ambassador to Uganda, described the boys’ disappearance as a “very unfortunate incident because it would sabotage future tours and would undermine the EU confidence in Ugandan players.”

Sports minister Henry Oryem directed the National Council of Sports to investigate the case and give him a report.

Our earlier edition said Sweden arrested the children. The arrest was in Holland. However, the Swedes were also on the lookout for the boys.
Ends