Hey there, DETECTIVES! DETECTIVE WRITER to introduce you all to an interesting topic regarding the case of Noela Rukundo.
Noela Rukundo is a Burundian-Australian woman who in February 2015, actually crashed her own funeral. Rukundo married a man named Balenga Kalala, a Congolese forklift operator back in 2004, soon after immigrating to Australia from Burundi with five kids at the time. Kalala had fled as a refugee to escape from a rebel army that had murdered his child and wife when he was 24 years old. The couple had met through the same social worker at an agency they both went to and eventually began a relationship. After they married, they had three children together.
Several years into their marriage, Kalala began to suspect his wife was cheating on him, that on January 21st, 2015, while his wife was in Bujumbura for her stepmom’s funeral, after speaking on the phone, Kalala told his wife to go outside for fresh air. When she exited her hotel, several men immediately kidnapped her at gunpoint and taken to a warehouse. One of the men had revealed to her that her own husband had ordered them to kill her but they would not because they knew her brother and would not kill women and children. At first, she could not believe it until the kidnappers called her husband and he told them to kill her, which made her faint. The men told her husband on the phone that they would kill her but for an extra $3,400 charge. Rukundo’s brother soon called her and Rukundo also sent her brother $545 he requested to send to the police to investigate her case. She was released on February 19th, 2015. She was given 80 hours to leave the country safely.
Rukundo’s husband Kalala had prepared a funeral in Melbourne, Australia not knowing his wife had help from a pastor and Kenyan and Belgian embassies to return. She returned to Melbourne on February 22nd, 2015, and went back to her house the moment she stepped out of her car, her husband was scared and asked himself if he saw a ghost. Her response to his shocked expression was, “Surprise! I’m still alive.” When he realized his wife was still alive, he began begging for forgiveness while she called the police on him. He was eventually arrested and charged by a court in Melbourne to nine years in prison. In 2022, he was eligible for parole. Rukundo has stated that she has forgiven Kalala and has no ill will or grudge toward him. She said, “From my heart, I forgive him, let God judge him.”
I hope you have enjoyed this storytime as much as I did, DETECTIVES! Please let me know in the comments if you want more storytime! Have a great day, night, afternoon, or evening, DETECTIVES! Stay tuned for next week’s post; until then, keep on sleuthing, DETECTIVES!
Detective Writer 