When did witchcraft gain positive connotations?

By Caleb Mutua

I hardly watch news these days because if it’s not about the on-going Ocampo Four prayers (I wish we prayed for IDPs with such gusto), the media jogs our memory with the despicable story of the suspended deputy chief justice who allegedly pinched the nose of a security guard after the guard insisted on searching her bag. However, news previews of a suspected thief who was found eating grass at a witchdoctor’s compound in Nakuru glued me to my television last Saturday.

After waiting for what seemed like ages, the story was finally aired. Apparently, a man robbed a woman her laptop in Nakuru. The woman visited a well-known witchdoctor who resides in the area and after the “healing” session, the victim was given a small concoction by the witchdoctor who assured her that the thief would return her laptop after seven days. It happened that last Saturday was the end of the seven days and sure enough the thief returned the laptop.

Jabbering eye witnesses told reporters that they saw a man crawling in the doctor’s compound eating grass. I was shocked by the audacity of both the woman and the witchdoctor to appear on camera; they joyously narrated the whole story to the baffled onlookers as if witchery was accepted in our society.

The following day the story was much the same but this time it was in Eldoret. Residents of Kimumu area decided to seek help from a “soothsayer” following the killing of two businessmen. It is alleged that the soothsayer prophesied that the killers would show up in the scene of crime after seven days. Last Saturday being the deadline for the killers, a woman whom the residents said fit the soothsayer’s description turned up and even confessed to have played a role in the killings. Angry residents stormed a house where the woman had taken refuge baying for her blood. The police were on the frontline trying to jostle the woman away from the angry, stone-throwing crowd that was determined to revenge the death of two businessmen. The “calculated” moves by our boys in blue were pathetic to say the least.

The woman seeing her life hanging on a thread refused to let go the shirt of an officer who kept hitting and literally dragging her to a waiting police Land Rover. Another officer was so confused that he fell on the helpless woman in panic. It took the intervention of another officer to save the woman. The officer snatched an AK-47 from the fallen officer and fired live bullets at the rowdy residents. A stampede followed and people ran for their lives.

These two accounts and many others that go unreported shows how deep witchcraft is rooted in Kenya.

According to The Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press, a U.S based independent public opinion research organization, even though Kenyan is ranked 11th in Africa and 16th worldwide as the most religious people, we retain the former position when it comes to countries that believe in witchcraft in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is leading in the worship of alternative gods.

These gods include witchcraft, evil spirits, sacrifice to ancestors, traditional religious healers and reincarnation. “I have been to the witchdoctor once when my business started to go down,” reveals Mr. James Kilonzo, a mobile accessories vendor in Nairobi, “I paid KSHs. 3,000 and the witchdoctor blamed my brother in-law for the downfall and assured me improvement,” Kilonzo added. He eventually closed shop.

Normally, the victims of witchcraft cannot tell who bewitched them and all they have is gut suspicions on those they consider their enemies; individuals they think are jealous or just want to harm them or their families. “My aunt bewitched my father because she was jealous of my dad’s success,” Mrs. Silvia Adhiambo narrates. “After my father passed on, my aunt got sick and when she was bed-ridden she confessed to my older brother.”

Shock on you if you thought only the old-fashioned and the illiterate believe in witchcraft. Ms. Brenda Akoth, a student at the University of Nairobi believes her late grandmother was bewitched. She adds that these same spirits , whether evil or nor, can be used to do good in the society. “When witchcraft is used to heal people or help catch a thief, it is a good practice,” she added.

Witchcraft signboards claiming to solve all kind of problems including marital problems, low libido, getting a job, winning a case in court and even wooing a man or a woman hang loose on city trees and other weird places.

Kenyan clergy have publicly condemned witchcraft despite rumours that some of the “healings” witnessed on television every Sunday morning are works of the devil; specifically after the commercialization of the anointing oil. “Our God is a jealous God and we should not worship other alternative gods,” preaches Pastor Andrew Maghanga of Christ Is Alive Ministry. He emphasized that witchcraft is against Biblical teachings and those who practice it will face full wrath of the lord come judgment day.

From an economical point of view and if American economist Walt W. Rostow is anything to go by, witchcraft takes us back to the first stage of economic development where Rostow opine that the economic system of communities at this stage is stationary and dominated by agriculture with traditional cultivation forms and magic. “Witchcraft in the era of superhighways is not only misplaced but also an embarrassment to the hardworking Kenyans and Vision 2030,” Mr. Johnson Ndaita, a business administration student at the University of Nairobi argued.

At this point in time when the gap between the rich and the poor gets wider by the day, there is urgent need for the church to reach out to the people and offer guidance and advice to both the bewitched and those who believe in alternative gods.

First published in March 2012.