?Easter holiday tragedy as village mourns murder of their kin

A village is mourning after a middle aged man was grisly murdered outside his homestead by unknown people in Taita-Taveta County.

Police said the body of the 37-year-old man was found outside his Mkamwasi village home in Mwanda Location, Taita Sub County with several deed cuts on his neck.

“The body of the deceased was found outside his house in a pool of blood. The deceased was stubbed to death with a sharp object,” confirmed Taita Sub County Police Commander Onesmas Kombe.

The police Sub County Commander said investigations into the incident had been launched.

There are however conflicting information about the death of the man with some villagers linking the incident to a land dispute while other claiming that he had quarreled with others in an illicit brew den before the tragedy befell him.

Police however warned members of the public against speculating the cause of the death. Mr Kombe said a postmortem examination would be conducted to determine the cause of the death.

“Investigations into the incident are still going on and we are calling on members of the public to volunteer information that can lead to the arrest of the runway suspects,” said the police officer.

The incident comes at a time when cases of murder continue to rise in the recent past.

In one of the recent incidences, a 90-year-old man was lynched and his body burned on claims of practising witchcraft.

Police said they arrested six family members in connection with the murder that has baffled residents of Werugha Location in Taita Sub-county, where a 57-year-old woman was also subjected to mob justice over the same claims.

The woman, who was rescued by the police later died in a Mombasa hospital where she was referred for specialized treatment.

Kombe said the man’s charred remains were found lying at Mlondo Trading Centre along the Wundanyi-Werugha Road, and that his village home had been deserted by villagers at the time of the incident.

Villagers claimed that the deceased was found dancing naked in the wee hours and going round the house of one of the arrested suspects who alerted villagers.

According to the villagers, the deceased whom they linked him with witchcraft and wizardry was talking incarnations.

 “The deceased was going round the house dancing naked at 4am. Angry villagers were alerted who descended on him and lynched him before dousing his body with petrol,” said one of the villagers.

In the recent past, two other elderly men aged about 70-years had been hacked to death on claims that they practice witchcraft and wizard in Nyangala division, Voi Sub County. 

The two were suspected to have been killed by a vicious gang of killers for hire that police sources claims is operating in Kasigau location.

Residents said the gang locally known as Chironda wa Mabulu had been behind the bizarre murders of over a dozen old men and women suspected of practicing witchcraft.

Chironda wa Mabulu is a Giriama word that is loosely translated as ‘A wound with Maggots’ which is a said to be a group that specializes in extermination of witches.

According to the statistics from Interior and Coordination officials and human right groups, more than 20 people had so far been killed by the terror gang since 2014.

The dreadful group had forced old men to flee from the area for fear of being eliminated.

The villagers said the deceased bodies were horribly mutilated with deep cuts on the head, abdomen and legs.