Shepherds eat grass as flock watches

By Moses Nyamori

Kisumu;Kenya: Residents of a village in Kisumu County were left speechless after two pastors ate grass upon sipping a witchdoctor’s concoction used for unravelling cattle thieves.

The incident shocked residents prompting them to discuss it, albeit in subdued whispers, minutes after the two men of God — who were blood brothers — went down and began rabidly munching grass.

 “Eh, hii dawa imeshika ata watumishi wa Mungu (this concoction is so potent that it has not spared pastors)!” whispered one of the villagers at the scene.

BULL

It all started when two bulls belonging to a Mzee Otieno, which he intended to give out as dowry for his first born son, were stolen.

He went round the village pleading with whoever cared to listen to bring back his bulls, before he could enlist the services of a Tanzanian witchdoctor well known for making thieves eat grass.

His appeal fell on deaf ears. The next morning, the old man, once again, went round urging them to be punctual and not to skip a brief meeting he had scheduled.  Little did they know that a magician had been invited to perform a ritual aimed at revealing whoever stole his bulls.

First to arrive at the Mzee’s home were the two pastors. They started with a word of prayer punctuated with cautions to the old man against inviting witchdoctors for that would bring God’s wrath to the community.

After a short while, curious locals started streaming at the homestead. Some of the locals, who had gotten wind of the witchdoctor’s presence, vowed to beat him if his ‘abracadabra’ yielded nothing. It has become commonplace for such witchdoctors to get paid handsomely only for their charms to fail.

Clad in an Arsenal FC jersey, a man in his early 30s, who had all along been hiding in the old man’s house, emerged, leaving the sceptical villagers doubting to whether he was up to the task.

“Rawera ni ema jaduong’ Otieno okela ka? Ma ong’e gima dhi loso ka (this young man is the one Mzee Otieno has brought here? He will certainly perform nothing),” whispered an old man in the crowd.

Immediately the witchdoctor got down to business mixing his concoction and gave it out for all to sip. No sooner had he finished serving it than the first suspect, the older pastor, started crawling on the ground violently chomping on grass.

Next, his younger brother, also a pastor, followed suit, leaving their family — who came to see thieves eat grass, thoroughly embarrassed.

They hurriedly pleaded with the old man together with the witchdoctor to release their kin promising to pay up for the stolen cattle and the witchdoctor’s service.

After a frantic search, they gave two bulls to replace the stolen ones and added another for the magician. But it was a case of too little too late, as the enraged locals gave an ultimatum to the extended families of the two pastors to vacate the area.

“This people are not from this area and must leave,” an elder bellowed to applause from the crowd.