Walter Menya And Angwenyi Gichana
26 May 2008
Nairobi — Cries of anguish rent the night as the angel of death descended on the inhabitants of Gusii land.
Cries of anguish rent the night as the angel of death descended on the inhabitants of Gusii land. Instead of waking up to tend to their farms as is the norm, several families in Kegogi, Metembe, Nyakeyo and three other villages were mourning their loved ones following an orgy of killing last Tuesday night.
They had fallen prey to a killer gang believed to be members of the Sungusungu vigilante group for ostensibly practising witchcraft.
By dawn, at least 15 people, mostly women lay dead, either burnt to death or cut to pieces by their accusers for taking part in the evil that the residents blame for the underdevelopment in the area.
Besides the acrid smell of death, more than 50 houses were torched, the smouldering embers a stark revelation of the tribulations their former occupants had undergone as their lives were snuffed out of them during the night raid.
In addition, scores were nursing injuries inflicted by the irate villagers who went on the rampage as they searched for suspected witches.
The swoop was code-named Operation Okoa Maisha (Operation Save A Life) after the Kenya Army incursion in the Mount Elgon area for the members of the militant Sabaot Land Defence Force.
Looming trouble
Signs of looming trouble showed when a list of the alleged witches, who were marked to die, was found at Nyamasaria primary school, Kisii Central District earlier in the day.
Marani district officer, James Gitau later held a meeting in the area to cool the tempers, but immediately after the meeting, the villagers regrouped and started torching houses belonging to suspected witches.
"It was late in the night when the lynching started," Mr Gitau said.
A church minister, the Reverend Enoch Obiero, who lost his wife, Ebisiba in the raid, said that they were ambushed by a group of youths who broke the windows and doors of their house.
"As we were preparing to go to bed, we saw a group of people marching towards our house bearing very bright spotlights that blinded us," he said.
Thinking that they were thieves, he raised the alarm, but no help was forthcoming.
What he did not know was that his wife had been marked "wanted" by the lynch mob for allegedly engaging in witchcraft, her diabetic condition notwithstanding.
"We pleaded with them to spare our lives but they could hear none of our pleas," narrated Mr Obiero.
He escaped death narrowly, going out through the kitchen door, after the youths doused the house with petrol and set it on fire. His sick wife died in the inferno.
Her body was later traced to the couple's bathroom where she had apparently gone to seek refuge from the flames.
In neighbouring homes, families of Peris Kemunto, 86, and Milka Nyang'au, 60, were in mourning.
"Why did these people kill my wife? Why did they burn our house if it was my wife they were looking for?" asked the clergyman rhetorically.
Similar questions were raised by the dependants of other victims in other five villages in Kisii Central and Nyamira districts, with few, if any answers, forthcoming.
The six villages were in a sombre mood as police vehicles made numerous trips, some to remove the charred bodies to the mortuary, and others to take charge of the security in the area.
In other homes hit by the operation, relatives were busy putting up temporary shelters. The families maintain that the dead were innocent.
Is rampant
Among the accusations levelled against the suspected witches are using their supernatural powers to kill or maim their victims.
Further, residents accuse the witches of causing their children to perform poorly in school.
However, some residents not only believe that witchcraft is rampant in the area, but also that the perpetrators deserved the punishment meted on them.
One family claimed that they sold their land in Metembe Village for neighbouring Miruka, because they could no longer put up with the behaviour of some of their neighbours, who they believed were out to harm them through sorcery.
A family member, 40, now lives in Nyamira township, while his parents stay in their new home in Miruka.
"My family moved from Metembe to Miruka because we feared that we would be harmed," he told the Nation.
He says that the same fear has driven many people out of the village, and especially the educated youth.
"The youth are the main target of the witches, so they stay in towns so that they do not come into contact with the people who plan to harm them," he adds.
To harm them
This has led to deteriorating economic wellbeing of the area as the productive age group is nowhere to take part in the process.
Those who remain behind, it is claimed, have turned to heavy chang'aa drinking and hardly do anything meaningful for the families.
Area residents have now turned on the suspects with a vengeance, and many have been killed in as many years on suspicion of practising witchcraft.
The residents believe that this is the way to go, to instil fear among the remaining witches, so that they can live in peace.
The local police and Provincial Administration have, in the meantime, warned the residents against taking the law into their own hands.
"As much as we do not support witchcraft, people must also respect human rights," said Kisii Central DC Njoroge Ndirangu.
The lynching
Nyamira OCPD, Lawrence Mwaura Njoroge and Nyamaiya DO, Mwangi Ngunyi also condemned the killings and asked area residents to provide information that would assist security to arrest the perpetrators of the lynching.
"We are going to do thorough investigations and those found to have taken the law into their own hands will be dealt in accordance with the law," Mr Njoroge said.
Mr Mwaura said that the suspects should not be condemned by the public, but should be handed over to police for prosecution.
Meanwhile, the undulating region in the southern part of Nyanza now echoes the trepidation the residents live as the confusion caused by witches reigns.
They have vowed to wipe out all the suspected witches on their list despite police warnings to the contrary.
On the other hand, the targeted families now hinge their hopes on the Government to protect them from the unrelenting mob.
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