butterfliesandwheels | Last Sunday, a 45 year old woman, Christine Jemeli Koech, was accused
of witchcraft. A neighbour claimed that Koech, a mother of six, had
been responsible for her child’s illness. A local mob stormed Koech’s
house early in the morning while she was asleep. They murdered her and
burnt her body. This gruesome practice of lynching continues in the East
African country of Kenya.
According to media reports, the neighbour has been arrested but the
people who carried out the killing are still at large. Witch burning is
common in Kenya and in other parts of the region. Men and women accused
of bewitching people are executed by a lynch mob. Some years ago, a
graphic video of ‘witches’ being burnt in Kenya was circulated on the
internet. It attracted international outrage and condemnation.
It drew the attention of the world to the scale of the problem in
Kenya and in other parts of Africa. People in Kenya engage in witch
burning with apparent impunity. People who attack and lynch ‘witches’
more often than not get away with their crimes. This has to stop. The
government of Kenya needs to take a proactive rather than its current
reactive approach to combat the accusation of witchcraft and the burning
of witches in their country.
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