Angry mob beats Nyandarua witch senseless

By Anthony Gitonga

Residents of Chuma Village, Nyandarua County experienced a bizarre incident in which an elderly woman caught attempting to use witchcraft to recover her money got a thorough beating.

It began when some men, walking at night spotted a stark-naked woman engaging in strange activities. They couldn’t tell what she was doing from a distance, but as they got closer, it became apparent she was performing some sort of ritual.

The sight of the relatively well-known and respected middle-aged woman otherwise known to be of sound mind pacing up and down the footpath in her birthday suit stopped them in their tracks.

Gymnastics

As they watched, she started digging a hole in the middle of a footpath before performing some gymnastics and then back-peddling back and forth to her house, which was metres away.

The biting cold, the croaking frogs and the barking of the dogs didn’t deter her from performing her witchery. Curious, the shocked men took cover in a bush to take a peek at her as she went on with her shenanigans.

“Kwani haogopi anaweza shikwa na pneumonia ama akuwe raped na walevi kwa hii giza (she is not even afraid of being raped by drunkards or even catching pneumonia in this cold)?” whispered one of the men to his colleagues.

Blood

The men waited in vain for her to finish whatever she was doing so that they could go check out. But she went on and on and they got tired waiting and went their way. The next morning, however, they turned up with almost the entire village behind them.

According to one local, Mwaura, they found blood splattered near the scene and their first thought was that the woman could have murdered someone and buried the body beside the road.

Heckled

“We got concerned and decided to dig to confirm what she had buried at the spot,” said Mwaura.

To their shock, they stumbled on a dead black chicken with a missing head buried in the ground together with some witchcraft paraphernalia. It was at this time that the woman was summoned by the enraged mob with all manner of allegations getting levelled against her.

Shaking and sweating, the woman arrived at the scene as the crowd booed and heckled her.

neighbour

Mwaura said that when cornered, she admitted to having visited a witchdoctor who recommended the said witchery to recover her money she had lent to a neigbour who had defaulted and then vanished.

Neighbour after the other, immediately started blaming her for all sort of things — from failed crops that withered under unclear circumstances to a cow that gave birth to blind calves that died days after birth.

She vehemently denied being a witch. But the crowd could hear none of it and descended on her with kicks and blows, seriously injuring her as they threatened to set her house ablaze.

It took the timely intervention of the area chief to save her the beatings after warning those present against taking the law into their own hands.

Nyandarua North OCPD Samson Munyao confirmed the incident and said police were investigating the matter.