Lynched witches accused of putting hex on sick boy

With lynch killings of so-called witches on the rise, a BBC correspondent today told his horrific story of how he saw five people accused of ‘bewitching’ an epileptic boy, being burned alive. As many as 150 elderly men and women accused of witchcraft have been lynched in Kenya, during the last six months, officials have said. Many were killed in gruesome ways, including being buried alive, by members of their own families and communities. Similar "witch" killings have happened in recent months in Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

Odhiambo Joseph who works for the BBC today told how he personally witnessed such killings in western Kenya. “I personally saw the burning alive of five elderly men and women in Itii village,” he said. “I had been visiting relatives in a nearby town, when I heard what was happening. I dashed to the scene, accompanied by a village elder. “He reacted as if what we were watching was quite normal, which was shocking for me. “As a stranger I felt I had no choice but to stand by and watch. My fear was that if I showed any sign of disapproval, or made any false move, the angry mob could turn on me. Mr Joseph said: “Not one person was protesting or trying to stop the killing.” Hours later, he said police came and took away the charred bodies. Some youths from the village who took part in the killings said the five victims had to die because they had bewitched a young boy, the correspondent said. He said he was told that a child had spent the night walking around and then the next day couldn’t walk. “I later discovered that the young boy who had supposedly been bewitched, was suffering from epilepsy.” His mother had panicked when he had had an attack.

In an attack earlier this year in western Kenya’s Kisii district, five old people were dragged out of their homes and burned alive, according to a report in The Economist news magazine. Human-rights groups say several people are killed on suspicion of witchcraft every month in Kisii alone. These kinds of hunt are still happening across Africa. Traditional healers often finger alleged witches, who may later be killed by mobs. Bouts of hysteria, sometimes presaged by apparently magical occurrences, can lead to hundreds of deaths. Tanzania’s government reckons that every year several hundred of its people are lynched on suspicion of witchcraft.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children