Prime suspect in American national's kidnapping set for court appearance

Derrick Memory, a prime suspect in connection with the kidnap of the American tourist and Ugandan tour guide, will appear before court on 29 June, Police authorities have revealed.

The suspect will face kidnap related charges next week when arraigned before a Rukungiri Court in Western Uganda, according to Police. So far, four suspects have since been charged.

He (Memory) has been in a Kampala detention facility for the past three months, after his capture that spanned eleven months of pursuit.  

Last year, four gunmen abducted Kimberly Sue Endicott, together with a Ugandan tour guide' Jean-Paul Mirenge, from Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The pair was recovered unharmed following a rescue mission comprising Uganda People's Defence Forces, the elite Special Forces Command, Police, and the Joint Intelligence Task Team.

Until Tuesday, security officials had remained tight-lipped on the details of the rescue mission.

Security sources have since told New Vision that the abductors received $30,000 (about sh112m) in ransom. It is not clear who paid the ransom.

Addressing the press at the height of the sage, Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, denied reports that Uganda paid a ransom to have the captives released.

However, other sources claimed that the government of Uganda paid the ransom to rescue the kidnapped duo.

"The government had no option but to follow the instructions of the kidnappers to pay $30,000 in exchange for the abductees," a source said.

How the rescue mission unfolded

Sources said the government did not negotiate with the kidnappers directly but rather through Wild Frontiers Safaris. As negotiations went on, it was suggested to the kidnappers that medicines and food be made available to the abductees.

The security organs involved in the rescue mission hoped to use this to track the location of the kidnappers in the DRC. But the kidnappers flatly rejected the suggestion.

After protracted negotiations, it was agreed that a ransom of $30,000 be paid to the kidnappers.

"The money was delivered through a process that took about two-and-a-half hours. The mission executors followed all the captors' instructions to the letter," the source explained.

"The courier of the cash package used two motorcycles moving 60km from Uganda across the porous border of the DRC to a place as ordered by the captors," a source added.

The captors issued the instructions using Endicott's cellphone. "The abductors insisted the money must be delivered by a neutral person, a woman who was not armed and had to travel using a motorcycle to an undisclosed point, about 30km inside the DRC."

"After crossing the border into the DRC, the woman travelling on the motorcycle was ordered to stop at a certain point and was asked to hand over the money to another person riding a motorcycle from the DRC border side.

The woman went with the motorcyclist to the destination, where the money was counted and checked to ascertain it is not counterfeit," the source added.

The captives and the woman who took the money returned on one motorcycle to the place where the Ugandan motorcyclist had been left. The Ugandan motorcycle rider was ordered to bring the three to the Ugandan side of the border.