Nairobi News

Drama ensued at Bura Ndogo village in Taveta sub-county on Monday evening after a Tanzanian witch-doctor and his accomplice were arrested by members of public following a failed attempt to resurrect a teenager who had committed suicide in 2017.

The witchdoctor had turned up at the homestead on Sunday evening, accompanied by a doppelganger of the boy who had committed suicide.

Strangely, the witch-doctor convinced the family members and neighbours that the young man accompanying him was the same one whom they thought they had buried two years ago.

The striking resemblance between the dead teenager and the one accompanying the witch-doctor had a section of the villagers buying the story.

Things took a turn for the bizarre after the witch-doctor declared that the family of the deceased teen had buried a mirror image of their son.

He claimed they had all been bewitched to believe it was their late son. Hundreds of villagers flocked the homestead to witness the said miracle. There was a small problem though.

The resurrected man could not talk, a situation the witch-doctor attributed to “his trauma from ordeals he had experienced in the demonic dimensions where he was allegedly held as a slave and had been overworked by his spirit master”.

DARK MYTH

“He is very tired. Just give him time to recover and he will be okay,” advised the witchdoctor.

The Tanzanian was exploiting some dark Taveta myth where evil people sometimes are believed to use witchcraft to entrap unsuspecting people and make them work as slaves in a dark process called ‘kuchukuliwa msukule’.

This is loosely translated as being held captive in some unknown spiritual dimensions where you are made a slave who works for some evil master. During this time, the family of the person being held captive believe he is dead. But the witchdoctor’s gamble didn’t pay off. Word rapidly spread about the resurrected son.

By late Monday afternoon, the compound was teeming with curious villagers, majority who had started casting doubt on the resurrection story.

They were especially upset that the teen could not talk and regale them with tales of where he had been. The villagers were also eager to know who amongst them had held the teenager captive.

Unable to wait any longer, the villagers demanded that the young man addresses them. Matters went from bad to worse when the area chief went to verify the claims and dismissed the whole drama as an elaborate con-game.

Angry at being taken for a ride, enraged villagers apprehended the witchdoctor, the resurrected boy and the home owner and frog-marched them to the police station.

ACCEPTED THE OFFER

Along the way, the boy miraculously regained his speech powers and pleaded his innocence.

He admitted he had been persuaded to come to Kenya for some well-paying job and he had promptly accepted the offer.

Speaking to KNA on Tuesday, Taveta Deputy County Commissioner Stanley Kamande termed the entire incident as a hoax.

He explained that the witchdoctor might have colluded with the father of the victim to hoodwink the villagers about the resurrection story.

He said the father’s son had committed suicide two years ago and had been buried in the homestead.

There are claims that the witchdoctor was after publicity which would have helped him to gain clients from local families whose loved ones had died and wanted them ‘resurrected’.

Kamande cautioned members of public against falling prey to such tricks from self-seekers who wanted to exploit them.

“The father of the boy came back with the witchdoctor but at the border, they lied they were coming for agricultural activities,” said the administrator.

The suspects will be charged with providing false information amongst other offences.