Tanzania witch doctor on the run after causing death of two people

A Tanzanian witchdoctor is on the run after two people he named as prime suspects in an arson incident were lynched by the public in Migori.

Police said they were looking for the man who incited the public against Daniel Tabu and Alfred Msara at Kwa village in Suna East sub-county on Tuesday evening.

It all started after the witchdoctor cast a spell and used concoctions to identify those behind the recent arson attack in the village that left one child dead.

Collected money

The villagers had collected money to hire his services and he arrived in the village armed with charms to help catch the culprits.

The two were part of the crowd that turned out to watch the famous witchdoctor identified as Ogwang work on his paraphernalia to name the suspects.

Samson Msara, brother of the late Alfred, said the witchdoctor performed some rituals.

“We were not aware what was going to happen, but little did we know that the two who were with us were to be named as suspects,” said Mr Msara.

Msara said the two were shocked when the witchdoctor named them after he picked ashes from a house burnt two weeks earlier by unknown suspects.

Philip Kisiagro, the Suna Rabuor location chief, said Odoyo Chacha’s house was burnt at night, in an incident in which his teenage son died.

“Mr Chacha’s family sneaked into Tanzania and brought the witchdoctor to help find the suspects, and the mob descended on their two colleagues after they were named,” the chief said.

The administrator said the two tried to escape but were captured and hacked to death.

“One of them tried to escape and seek refugee in his brother’s house but it was also torched. The mob later turned to his house and torched it too,” said Kisiagro.

The witchdoctor later sneaked back to Tanzania as the bodies were taken to Migori Referral Hospital mortuary.

Migori County Police Commander Joseph Nthenge said they had summoned members of the Chacha family and those from affected families to help with investigations.

“Our main suspect is the witchdoctor. We have already contacted our colleagues in Tanzania and he will face charges of manslaughter and incitement in Kenyan courts if arrested,” said Nthenge.

He said after investigations, more suspects will be brought to book.

On December 12, the same witch doctor is said to have incited Witharaga villagers, only three kilometers from the scene, who set ablaze a homestead belonging to Ojwang Odede who was accused of being behind the abduction of a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidate.

Three houses in Mr Odede’s home were set ablaze after he fled from the home.

They accused him of being behind the November 21 evening incident in which the student from the nearby Witharaga Mixed Secondary School was abducted.

The student left the school after revising for his CRE Paper Two paper ahead of the exam the next day.

He is said to have been forced into a vehicle and driven away in what was blamed on jealousy after he came tops in the school since the beginning of the year when he chose to repeat class.