Wife crashes her own funeral, horrifying her husband, who had paid to have her killed

Noela Rukundo describes her husband 's reaction when she appeared at her own funeral, after he hired a team of hitmen to kill her . Her husband ,Balenga Kalala , is serving nine years in prison for incitement to murder.


Noela Rukundo sat in a car outside her
home, watching as the last few mourners
filed out. They were leaving a funeral —
her funeral .
Finally, she spotted the man she ’d been
waiting for . She stepped out of her car ,
and her husband put his hands on his
head in horror.
“ Is it my eyes?” she recalled him saying.
“ Is it a ghost ?”
“ Surprise! I’m still alive !” she replied .
Far from being elated , the man looked
terrified. Five days earlier, he had
ordered a team of hit men to
kill Rukundo, his partner of 10 years. And
they did — well , they told him they did.
They even got him to pay an extra few
thousand dollars for carrying out the
crime .
Now here was his wife , standing before
him . In an interview with the BBC on
Thursday, Rukundo recalled how
he touched her shoulder to find it
unnervingly solid. He jumped . Then he
started screaming .
“ I’m sorry for everything ,” he wailed .
But it was far too late for apologies ;
Rukundo called the police. The husband ,
Balenga Kalala , ultimately pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to nine years in
prison for incitement to murder,
according to the Australian Broadcasting
Corp. (the ABC ).
The happy ending — or as happy as can
be expected to a saga in which a man
tries to have his wife killed — was made
possible by three unusually principled hit
men , a helpful pastor and one
incredibly gutsy woman : Rukundo.
Here is how she pulled it off .
Rukundo’s ordeal began almost exactly a
year ago , when she flew from her home
in Melbourne with her husband , Kalala ,
to attend a funeral in her native Burundi .
Her stepmother had died and the service
left her saddened and stressed.
She retreated to her hotel room in
Bujumbura, the capital , early in the
evening; despondent after the events of
the day , she lay down in bed. Then her
husband called .
“ He told me to go outside for fresh air , ”
she told the BBC .
But the minute Rukundo stepped out of
her hotel, a man charged forward ,
pointing a gun right at her .
“ Don’t scream ,” she recalled him saying.
“ If you start screaming , I will shoot you .
They’re going to catch me, but you ? You
will already be dead .”
Rukundo, terrified, did as she was told .
She was ushered into a car and
blindfolded so she couldn ’t see where
she was being taken . After 30 or 40
minutes, the car came to a stop ,
and Rukundo was pushed into a building
and tied to a chair.
She could hear male voices , she told the
ABC. One asked her, “ You woman , what
did you do for this man to pay us to kill
you ?”
“ What are you talking about ?” Rukundo
demanded.
“ Balenga sent us to kill you . ”
They were lying . She told them so . And
they laughed .
“ You’ re a fool, ” they told her .
There was the sound of a dial tone , and a
male voice coming through
a speakerphone. It was her husband’ s
voice.
“ Kill her ,” he said .
And Rukundo fainted.
Rukundo had met her husband 11 years
earlier, right after she arrived in
Australia from Burundi , according to the
BBC . He was a recent refugee from the
Democratic Republic of Congo , and they
had the same social worker at the
resettlement agency that helped them get
on their feet. Since Kalala already
knew English , their social worker often
recruited him to translate for Rukundo,
who spoke Swahili .
They fell in love , moved in together in
the Melbourne suburb of Kings Park, and
had three children (Rukundo also had
five kids from a previous relationship).
She learned more about her husband ’s
past — he had fled a rebel army that had
ransacked his village , killing his wife and
young son . She also learned more about
his character .
“ I knew he was a violent man , ” Rukundo
told the BBC . “ But I didn’ t believe he can
kill me .”
But, it appeared, he could.
[Her attacker forced her to make a phone
call during a rape — so she called 911 ]
Rukundo came to in the strange building
somewhere near Bujumbura. The
kidnappers were still there, she told the
ABC.
They weren’ t going to kill her , the men
then explained — they didn’ t believe in
killing women , and they knew her
brother. But they would keep her
husband’ s money and tell him that she
was dead. After two days, they set her
free on the side of a road , but not before
giving her a cellphone, recordings of
their phone conversations with Kalala,
and receipts for the $ 7 ,000 in Australian
dollars they allegedly received in
payment , according to Australia’s The
Age.
“ We just want you to go back , to tell
other stupid women like you what
happened ,” Rukundo said she was told
before the gang members drove away .
Shaken , but alive and doggedly
determined, Rukundo began plotting her
next move. She sought help from the
Kenyan and Belgian embassies to return
to Australia, according to The Age. Then
she called the pastor of her church in
Melbourne , she told the BBC , and
explained to him what had happened .
Without alerting Kalala, the pastor
helped her get back home to her
neighborhood near Melbourne .
Meanwhile, her husband had told
everyone she had died in a tragic
accident and the entire community
mourned her at her funeral at the family
home. On the night of Feb . 22, 2015, just
as the widower Kalala waved goodbye to
neighbors who had come to comfort him ,
Rukundo approached him , the very man
whose voice she ’d heard over the phone
five days earlier , ordering that she be
killed.
“ I felt like somebody who had risen
again, ” she told the BBC .
Though Kalala initially denied all
involvement, Rukundo got him to confess
to the crime during a phone conversation
that was secretly recorded by police,
according to The Age.
“ Sometimes Devil can come into
someone , to do something , but after they
do it they start thinking, ‘ Why I did that
thing ?’ later, ” he said, as he begged her
to forgive him .
Kalala eventually pleaded guilty to the
scheme. He was sentenced to nine years
in prison by a judge in Melbourne .
“ Had Ms . Rukundo’ s kidnappers
completed the job , eight children would
have lost their mother,” Chief Justice
Marilyn Warren said, according to the
ABC. “ It was premeditated and motivated
by unfounded jealousy , anger and a
desire to punish Ms . Rukundo. ”
Rukundo said that Kalala tried to kill her
because he thought she was going to
leave him for another man — an
accusation she denies .
But her trials are not yet over. Rukundo
told the ABC she ’s gotten backlash
from Melbourne ’ s Congolese community
for reporting Kalala to the police.
Someone left threatening messages for
her, and she returned home one day to
find her back door broken. She now has
eight children to raise alone and has
asked the Department of Human Services
to help her find a new place to live .
And lying in bed at night , Kalala ’s voice
still comes to her : “ Kill her , kill her, ” she
told the BBC . “ Every night , I see what
was happening in those two days with
the kidnappers. ”
Despite all that , “ I will stand up like a
strong woman , ” she said . “ My situation ,
my past life ? That is gone. I’m starting a
new life now. ”