Ryder Gabathuse
5 December 2007
Francistown — A retired former police crack detective, Kernel Kekgonegile says that ritual murders are generally difficult to investigate by their nature.
"The motive for the killing is one aspect that sets ritual murders apart from ordinary murders where a person attacks another in full view of others and possibly kill there and then," declares the former police senior superintendent who retired in 2000.
The Maun-based retired officer says in most cases, compiling information collected from possible sources to get a major breakthrough into a case requires patience, perseverance and a great deal of hard work.
"It causes a lot of headache just to get to know how the killing was executed, the instruments used and the recovery of missing bodily parts and positively relating them to the discovered body, the relationship between the deceased and the arrested suspects and actually the whole chain of people involved in a case of ritual murder," he says.
The most difficult part of a ritual murder, Kekgonegile says, is that the arrested suspects would not simply volunteer information just because they are held in custody.
"They tend to perfect their defence since they take a long time to plan about the deal and once accomplished, it takes a great deal of time and intellect to break through," Kekgonegile points out.
He says during the initial stages of questioning and interrogation, a suspect would mellow and promise to volunteer some valuable information and only to change heart along the way.
"When investigating a case of ritual murder, detectives following whatever lead, would need to be patient and avoid excitement when a piece of information is volunteered. You need to be always perfect and thorough in handling whatever piece of information that reaches your desk," advises Kekgonegile who spent 35 years in the police service as a detective.
One of the strategies that made Kekgonegile a good detective during his heydays was his tendency to isolate suspects, totally avoiding communication with the outsiders.
"You totally cut contact and restrict the suspect so as to avoid him or her fiddling with possible evidence through the outside contacts," he says.
He says in most cases, the corpse of the victim would be moved from many places before it could be finally dumped at the place where it was discovered.
Revealing the triangle of a ritual murder, Kekgonegile says there are always the motivator, the killer and the traditional doctor.
"Human body parts reportedly strengthen the motivator and provide some good luck. This is what we have learnt as we questioned those involved in the past cases." Kekgonegile does not believe in any of these stories, but just found himself doing his work.
Although ritual murder cases are hard to crack, Kekgonegile remembers two cases in which he cracked when it was really tough.
One of the cases that Kekgonegile remembers vividly is the ritual murder in Sekoma village whilst he was based in Kanye.
"I had found a person held by the police suspected for murdering another person and dumping the remains in a hole in the thickets. Wild animals had already eaten up some bodily parts," reminisces the former crack detective.
Kekgonegile says he later had breakfast, lunch and dinner with the suspect until he broke through.
"It was after some hard work that the suspect led us to where the body parts were hidden. I managed to gather all possible evidence that later saw him convicted and condemned," the policeman revealed.
He says the initial arrest was simply based on circumstantial evidence. One thing for sure, he says, a ritual murder "syndicate" never panics.
He says experience has shown that a ritual murder suspect requires sunrise to sunset to open up.
"They are strong-hearted and they would not simply pass information. You have to be very clever when dealing with them. Don't get too close to them if you want to succeed," the crack detective advises.
Kekgonegile advises that a clever police detective would allow the suspect to do the talking whilst he listens.
In another case which was equally anchored on circumstantial evidence, Kekgonegile says a person who was last seen in the company of a child that was later found dead with some body parts missing be fore the arrest was made.
He does not remember the actual year of the case but he can remember that it was also a difficult one.
"Because this particular case had occurred at a time when I had amassed a lot of experience, I knew what questions to ask a suspect and generally how to handle the suspects in ritual murders until we got the important evidence that I required to pin the suspect with," he says.
In cases of ritual murder, Kekgonegile pointed out that there is always a syndicate, which includes a traditional doctor in the equation.
One ritual murder case that still remains unresolved relates to the Mochudi incident of schoolgirl Segametsi Mogomotsi who was killed by unknown people.
Her case saw the government paying a lot of money to bring crack detectives from the Scotland Yard who produced no solution. There were loud murmurings with fingers pointed at some people without an end to the issue.
Top Botswana detectives overseeing investigations by locals included the retired Kekgonegile and another detective identified as Somolekae.
Past immediate Commissioner of Police, Edwin Batshu acknowledges that murder cases are too secretive and hence difficult to crack.
"The doer or killer destroys evidence linking him or her to the crime and in most cases evidence relied upon is merely circumstantial unless on rare instances where they could make a straight break through," explains Batshu, who retired last June from the police service.
Most importantly, Batshu says unlike in the case of an ordinary murder, where a scene of crime could be preserved when it is convenient, the scene of a ritual murder is difficult to follow because evidence is totally destroyed and in most cases it takes time.
"The capacity of police officers investigating a case of ritual murder is very important as it might also determine the outcome of the investigations. The police also need highly sophisticated training to enable them to get the desired results of their investigations," Kekgonegile points out.
Batshu was worried that the police in some cases failed to make major breakthroughs in ritual murder cases mainly because "the society we are living in does not read into things and appreciate situations". He was also worried that in today's set up of the society, "children enjoy a lot of rights to the extent that a child could sleep away from home without any worry to the parents".
He says during his heydays, it was totally a taboo for a child to stay away without permission from the elders.
Batshu says chances of police succeeding even in ritual murders are there because of the state-of-the art laboratory where DNA tests and other pathological tests could be done conveniently by highly- trained police officers.
"In the urban areas where people seem not to care about what is happening in the neighbourhood, ritual murder incidents are difficult to penetrate whilst in the rural areas where people are close knit they have high chances of success," Batshu adds.
A serving police detective in charge of the Criminal Investigations at the Kutlwano police station, Assistant Superintendent Madziba Duna differs with his former superiors.
As a man in the field, he declares "there is nothing easy or difficult about a case of ritual murder". To him, it all depends on the information available, which ultimately could influence the outcome of the investigations.
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