Lobby raises concerns over ‘witchcraft killings’ in Rabai

Haki Yetu Organization has raised concern over the metamorphosis of attacks in Rabai county, which have generally moved from allegations of witchcraft to outright family disputes.

In the past, family disputes, which mostly involved land, led to the killings of the elderly on accusations of practicing witchcraft.

However, Haki Yetu programs officer Julius Wanyama now says the attacks were committed without any allegations of witchcraft.

“Due to lack of proper mechanisms to address the issues raised within families, the disputes spiral out of hand and lead to loss of lives,” Wanyama said.

In a week, between October 2 and October 10, four people, all females, were attacked by one person in the Mwanjama area in Ruruma ward, Rabai sub-county.

A 76-year-old elderly woman and her daughter, and a 30-year-old lady and her less than two-year-old daughter, were attacked by a man believed to be in his 20s.

The 76-year-old, Mbeyu Tembe, who was attacked on October 2 while nursing her sick daughter, Amina Chizi, at her daughter’s home, succumbed to her injuries after she was slashed four times on the head, neck, and face.

She died on October 10 at the Coast General Teacher and Referral Hospital.

About six days after the attack, a 30-year-old woman who was heading to a funeral of a relative of the deceased elderly woman, was also attacked on the way, by the same young man who attacked the elderly woman and her daughter.

“Is this a case of mental health, a case of negligence from the parents of the young attacker, or is it a case of unresolved family disputes which has led to the loss of the life of the elderly women?” Wanyama posed.

Haki Yetu, which has been following up on cases of witchcraft killings in Rabai, said the latest incidents point to unresolved family issues that have been boiling over time.

The attacker and the deceased are closely related.

The attacker is a step-grandson-in-law to the deceased elderly woman. He is the stepson of the deceased’s ailing daughter, who was also attacked while on her sick bed.

Police in Rabai say the attacker, who was almost lynched by the mob after he attacked the second woman, is under police guard as he recuperates at the Coast General Hospital.

“He will be arraigned once he is discharged from hospital,” police said.

The attacker’s father is a teacher at a primary school in Mombasa.

The teacher had been accused of neglecting his sick wife, which forced Tembe to move to their home to nurse her.

This, according to family members, did not please the teacher and he reported them to the police.

This brewed some hatred among the family members.

“He accused us of branding him a witch after we asked him to let us take our sister away and nurse her at our home,” blood relatives of the ailing Chizi, told the Star during the funeral of Tembe at Mwanjama village.

Wanyama said police officers should be empowered more to handle cases of such nature.

He said in many cases, their hands are tied and can do little, especially in cases where the families withdraw the cases they report after community elders hold talks.

“I have been in Rabai and those cases are rampant there. The most frustrating thing, however, is when the families talk behind the backs of the police and then suddenly withdraw the cases they had reported,” said a sub-county police commander who has served in Rabai before.

He requested anonymity because he no longer serves in Rabai and would not want to be seen to be interfering with a colleague’s jurisdiction.

The sub-county commander told the Star this frustrates the police officers who channel resources to investigate the reported cases only for them to end up being wasted because of the withdrawal of the same cases.

Haki Yetu has been advocating the use of an alternative justice system even before heading to the police.

Wanyama said their experience shows that in most cases, the families rush to the police first, and then later report to the area chiefs as an afterthought.

“How the chiefs and the police handle these cases matters a lot. In this particular case, the police were handling it but the family members’ hatred towards each other continued boiling,” he said.

The Haki Yetu programs officer said security actors need to consider working closely with institutions and people who have the expertise and capacity to handle disputes at the family level.

“There is no harm in referring cases to non-police experts if they are not criminal in nature because most of the cases reach their desk when the cases do not have any criminal nature at first,” Wanyama said.