After paying for his wife’s murder, Balenga Kalala got a surprise he could never have thought of at her funeral. His wife showed up.
Kalala, who has been living in Australia since 2004, paid a group of kidnappers $7,000 in Australian dollars to kill Noela Rukundo, the mother of his three children, early last year, reports Australia’s ABC News. At the time, Rukundo was away in her native Burundi for her stepmother’s funeral.
The group did kidnap Rukundo at gunpoint in February, but they refused to kill her because they knew her brother. They also don’t like to kill women. Instead, they decided to give Rukundo all the evidence she would need to prove that her husband paid to have her killed. They also never told Kalala that they didn’t carry out the hit.
So, Kalala told everyone he knew that his wife died in an accident in Africa. But in reality, Rukundo came back to Melbourne on Feb. 22, 2015 and called police. In September, Kalala was charged with a count of incitement to murder and pleaded guilty.
The case is just getting international attention now because The BBC did an interview with Rukundo, who recalled how she surprised Kalala at the funeral.
“When I get out of the car, he saw me straight away. He put his hands on his head and said, 'Is it my eyes? Is it a ghost?'” she recalled.
“Surprise! I’m alive!” she told Kalala at the funeral.
Rukundo also recalled how the kidnappers decided to let her go after two days of captivity. The gang’s leader told her that they do not kill women and children, but he decided to keep asking Kalala for more money.
Unfortunately, Rukundo told the BBC that some members of the African community in Melbourne blame her for Kalala’s conviction. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
“But I will stand up like a strong woman,” she told the BBC. “My situation, my past life? That is gone. I'm starting a new life now.”