- The woman said this is the third time she has been accused of practising witchcraft by her relatives, who want her dead.
- Rabai subcounty police boss said the complexity of such incidents usually make it hard for the police to investigate the matters to conclusion.
A 56-year-old woman in Rabai subcounty, Kilifi county, and her 18-year-old daughter fear for their lives after she was accused of practising witchcraft.
In a bizarre attempt on Sada Mwamba Mwanyoka’s life on April 8, two men, who were stark naked, and who had applied some oil all over their body so that they became slippery, broke into her house in Mwawesa village while they were asleep.
Their mission was to hack Mwamba to death, but this was thwarted by the daughter, Halima Mdeye, a Std 6 pupil, who wrestled with the main attacker as the other kept watch outside the room that mother and daughter shared.
“I was asleep when suddenly I had strange movements outside the house. Then I heard a voice say ‘This is the room’,” Mdeye said at Rabai health centre where they had gone to have their wounds dressed on Friday.
One of the attackers had a blunt object with which he used to hit her mother on the back of the head.
That is when Mdeye jumped out of her bed to try and save her mother.
She wrestled with the attacker while screaming, scaring the other attacker away.
“In the struggle I was hit in the head and also knifed in the arms three times,” she told Haki Yetu Organisation’s peace programme coordinator Julius Wanyama at the Rabai health centre.
They reported the matter at the Rabai police post under OB 19/8/4/22.
However, detectives handling their stories said they are still investigating the matter, something which has been frustrating the duo.
“They did not visit the scene of crime. They did not question anyone over the matter. They just say they are investigating,” Mwamba said.
They could not get their P3 form filled by medical personnel at the Mariakani hospital until the intervention of Haki Yetu Organisation last Thursday, about two weeks later.
“We were told to pay Sh1,000 for each of the two forms, mine and my daughter’s. We did not have that money,” Mwamba said.
Haki Yetu Organisation facilitated the same and asked the two to demand for a receipt.
“But when we told the hospital that we had been sent by Haki Yetu and that they wanted receipts for they payment, they said they would do it for free,” said Mwamba.
Rabai subcounty police commander Fred Abuga on Sunday said the case is with the DCIO in Rabai but he could not immediately reach him for details as the DCIO was in church.
However, he said the complexity of such incidents usually make it hard for the police to investigate the matters to conclusion.
This is because in many cases the complainants usually withdraw the cases while investigations are still ongoing after families come together and solve the matters amicably.
“Once the complainant has withdrawn the case, we cannot pursue it further,” Abuga said.
He further said the cases have however reduced in Rabai from up to five cases a month in 2020 to about one incident a month now.
Mwamba said this is the third time she has been accused of practising witchcraft by her relatives, who want her dead for "blocking their success through witchcraft."
The accusations started in 2015, immediately after her husband died.
She is the widow of a Kaya elder who had six wives.
Mwamba said her co-widows have been wondering how she has managed to take all her five children, including three boys and two girls, to school and none of the two girls has dropped out because of early pregnancies.
All her five co-wives have had their daughters drop out of school due to early pregnancy.
Wanyama told the Star this is a matter of jealousy which could also stem from the fact that Mwamba was the youngest of the co-wives.
“It is possible that the Kaya elder spent most of the time with Mwamba because she was the youngest and the latest wife,” Wanyama said.
He called for more policy action from the government over the witchcraft killings in Kilifi county.
“Kilifi leads with the cases of killings of elderly people yet when the cases go to hospital victims are forced to pay for the P3 forms," Wanyama said.
"It should be put in the same category as SGBV [sexual and gender-based violence] cases and have the P3 free of charge.”
Wanyama also said in most cases, those who report about threats to their lives are not given state protection until they are murdered.
Mwamba said she fears the attackers, who had covered their faces with red clothes, might come back to finish their job.
(edited by Amol Awuor)