Man’s futile effort to repossess stolen belongings through a witch doctor

By Rushdie Oudia

Kisumu, Kenya: There was drama at a garage in Kisumu after efforts by a witch doctor to punish a culprit hit a snag.

The witch doctor, popularly known as Professor Maji Marefu had threatened that whoever was responsible for the crime will find the stomach swollen to an extent of not being able to eat anything by five in the evening on Tuesday.

During the day, business came to a standstill for more than five hours at the Jua Kali workshop in Kamas area after a person claiming to have lost his property sought the services of the witchdoctor.

The man, only known as Omondi was alleged to have lost a radio, television set and a pair of speakers from his car which he had brought for the mechanics to repair.

Omondi is said to have brought his Toyota Shark car for regular services on Friday evening at the garage in town. After two days, he found out that many things had been stolen from the car.

Omondi’s efforts of threatening dire consequences to the suspect fell on deaf ears prompting him to seek the services of someone that might scare the suspect to own up and give him back his property.

On Tuesday, the witch doctor arrived and identified a region where the crime occurred. He afterwards slaughtered partially the throat of a black chicken and sprinkled the blood inside the car leaving the poor animal weak to near death.

“This hen cannot die, it will walk round the scene of crime up to five in the evening then the suspect will appear,” said Maji Marefu.

All the mechanics around Kamas waited with abated breath for the miracle to happen. However this seemed not to work as evening neared.

The public had waited for so long then started doubting the ability of the witchdoctor the moment the chicken that was to disappear, died.

“We have waited for the witch doctor’s results for two days running yet nothing has happened and his chicken is already dead,” said a mechanic from the garage.

 Efforts to reach the owner of the vehicle for comments were futile.

The owner of the vehicle had paid the witchdoctor Sh 5,000 to catch the thief.

The witch doctor comes from Ahero, 30 Kilometres from Kisumu Town.