The woman who attended her own funeral

 Noela Rukundo, a mother of 5 was an immigrant to Australia in 2004 as a refugee from Burundi. She did not speak much English and as a result the social worker used to ask a man, Balenga Kalala a forklift operator who had also immigrated in 2004 from Congo, to help translate to Swahili for Rukundi. Soon the two of them started a relationship and moved in together, got married and had 3 children together.

Img.1 Noela Rukundo

Almost a decade later Kalala began to wrongly suspect that Rukundo was cheating on him. He paid a group of hit-men a sum of $7,000 to kill her. On January 2015, Rukundo was back in Burundi to attend her stepmother’s funeral, Kalala called her and convinced her to step outside for some fresh air.

Little did she know what was waiting outside would change her life forever. The moment she set foot outside the hotel premises a gunman confronted her and forced her into a car. where two more armed men were waiting for her. Blind folded she was taken to a warehouse located in the rural part on the outskirts of the city. Tied to a chair she saw a fourth figure walking towards her.

This fourth man reveled to her that a hit has been placed on her head, that too by her husband Kalala. Hearing this information Rukundo’s feet trembled and the expression on her face changed from terrified to devastated. She could no believe the her own husband of almost a decade would even consider killing her let alone actually order a hit. While all these thoughts raced through her head, the gunmen told her something that would bring relief to her mind and body.

She was told that the hit-men had a code that they did not kill women and children, and to add to that they also knew her brother. In order to prove it to her that her husband was behind everything they called Kalala on speaker where he confirmed he wanted her dead, which caused her to faint.

The gunmen informed Rukundo that they would keep Kalala’s money but inform him that the hit had been executed. They would also charge him an additional $3,400. Rukundo while still missing, her brother began to worry. He called Kalala in Australia and asked him to send $545 so that the police would investigate her disappearance.

On February 19th the kidnappers dropped Rukundo off on the road with all the evidence that would help incriminate Kalala including the phone recording and the Western Union payment receipt. She was given 80 hours to leave the country.

Img. 2 Balenga Kalala

Back in Melbourne, upon getting confirmation of his wife’s death Kalala started making funeral preparations, and informed his friends and members of the African community that Rukundo had been killed in a tragic accident. Rukundo meanwhile contacted the Kenyan embassy to help her return to Australia. On 22nd February she returned to Melbourne and left for her house. She reached while the final mourners had just left the funeral. As soon as she stepped out of the car, Kalala was shell shocked. He screamed “Is it a ghost?”. Still terrified, with his trembling hand he reached for her shoulder to see if she was indeed real. Rukundo replied, “Surprise, I’m still alive!”. Kalala started screamed and instantly started apologizing to Rukundo. She was in no mood to listen to anything he had to say and called the cops on him.

After being arrested Kalala denied all the allegations of the attempted murder. But the police played the recordings and showed him all the proof. His explanation for attempting to have Rukundo murdered was that "sometimes [the] devil can come into someone to do something". On December 11, 2015, Kalala was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to nine years in prison.