Police yesterday recovered the body of an eight-year-old boy who was kidnapped and killed on July 31 in Kiruhura District.

The police said Ronald Kangume was kidnapped on his way to Christ the King Primary School in Ruhondwa Village, Kyakabunga Parish in Nyakashashara Sub-county by the family shamba boy.

The suspects, both shamba boys, allegedly connived with a bank staff, to kidnap the boy and demand a ransom of $100,000 (about Shs3.6 billion) from his relatives.

“The suspect offered to carry the young boy on a bicycle as he was going to school. He instead rode with him deep into the bush in the family farm and hid him. They then began calling the boy’s relatives for a ransom,” Rwizi Region police spokesperson Samson Kasasira said on Tuesday.

Mr Kasasira said they demanded ransom from Mr George Kamugisha, Kangume’s grandfather, but they killed the boy two hours after they had abducted him. He said they strangled him using a piece of cloth and buried the body in a hole beneath an anthill.

When the relatives reported the matter, police began tracking the phones the kidnappers had used in demanding ransom and those of their close friends.