WINDHOEK – A four-year-old boy survived what his mother described as an attempted kidnap of her son at a shop in Dorado Park after a man allegedly tried to walk away with the boy on Thursday last week.

The boy’s mother Edwina Kadima, a resident of the area, said the police are busy with investigations and assumed her son might have faced a situation similar to the chilling incident of Cheryl Avihe Ujaha, 9, who went missing from her home a week ago and was found dead and mutilated in Katutura.

“The fear and the thought of losing your child to someone grabbing him and the thought of what could have happened and what he wanted to do [is scary],” said Kadima of her fear. Kadima related the ordeal in audio clips circulated on WhatsApp, that she sent her nanny and her four-year-old boy to a shop to buy a few items on Thursday around 10am.  
According to Kadima, while the nanny was paying for the items at the till the boy disappeared. She said the nanny, identified only as Maria, then asked the security guard if they saw the boy but responded in the negative.

“She (the nanny) then asked the women who stood outside the shop and they told her the boy wearing red clothes passed here with the father.”

The nanny ran around looking for the boy.
Kadima said the man who was smartly dressed in a suit and hat went into an isolated street, presumably to wait for a vehicle or taxi to pick them up before disappearing.

But luckily, Kadima said, the nanny decided to return home to inform her (Kadima) that the boy had gone missing.
“While she was running (back home) she saw a man holding the boy by the hand and walking away. 

“Ladies, it is not safe. When she saw the child from a distance, she dropped the items she bought and ran towards the man and boy. She screamed and called out the boy’s name, Ethan, Ethan and he turned around crying,” narrated the mother.
“The whole time he pulled my son while crying. He immediately let go of the boy and ran into the riverbed and Maria came to the boy.” 

She said there are CCTV cameras in front of the shop.
Khomas regional commander Commissioner Sylvanus Nghishidimbwa said he is aware of the incident but no case was opened. He said the police approached Kadima to identify the man. 
However, Nghishidimbwa said the police are not linking this incident to Ujaha’s as the two might be completely different.