In Pure Spirit

Speaking at the Kenya Investment Authority strategy meeting the Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi blamed the lack of investment on witchcraft killings.

The Commissioner highlighted the problem of the murder of elderly people suspected of practising witchcraft as sending bad signals which scared investors away.

Charities have reported that the killing of elderly people in Kenya is sometimes an economic crime. Families are unable to support their elderly dependants and adopt excuses to facilitate their murder.

The Kenyan Standard carries photographs of an alleged witchdoctor, Mr Chengo Dingo, being stripped of his powers.

Kanamai residents in the Kilifi District accused Mr Dingo of destroying marriages and wrecking businesses. In response the locals hired the servers of two ‘senior’ withdoctors; Safari Mohamed and Omar Mohamed to render Dingo powerless.

The witchdoctor was shaved, painted, made to straddle the more senior Mohamed and tehn carried around the village. He was declared free of evil powers.

Nine women stand accused of witchcraft and face criminal charges in a court in Kenya.

The women from Kiagoro in the Kisii District of Kenya have been accused of intent to harm and witchcraft knowledge. It is claimed that they cast a spell on a local boy, which struck him dumb and forced him to walk from house to house for an entire night in April.

The nine women nearly escaped a lynch mob who set after them seeking just for the 11 year old boy.

In Kenya, students of the Kakamega blamed surprisingly bad exam marks on a local teacher who, it is claimed, had been engaged in witchcraft.

Girls from Form Three and Form Four stated that personal effects had been taken by the teacher to local magicians in order to be cleansed. The teacher is said to have been liaising with magicians over the term period in order to help boost the student’s academic abilities.

Digirikani resident Kwekwe Tayari is receiving treatment in the Coast Provincial General Hospital after her nephew and lodger severed her hand with a type of machete known as a panga.

Tayari’s nephew had previously threatened violence, blaming his poor health on her witchcraft. On Saturday he attacked her and her son, Ramadhan Tayari, who attempted to rescue her before fleeing the scene.

Mombasa police have launched a manhunt.

The popular Kenyan singer Nyota Ndogo is reported to have gone into hiding after reports that witches and witchdoctors had been approached to kill her.

According to Ndogo she received a call from a man who identified himself as a witch and who had been asked to trace and kill her. The witch, however, refused the contract as he saw no evil in the singer.

Ndogo told Kenyan newspaper The Standard, “I was so shocked. Somebody called me saying that he had been ordered to kill me but could not trace a good reason to do so as, according to his findings, I had not wronged anyone. He asked to meet me at my residence in secrecy to deliver the full message.”