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A witchhunt and a murder

Details

Published on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 19:52

Purity was married to Emily under the Abagusii woman-to-woman customary marriage. The two lived at a village in Bassi-Boitengare location of Kisii District. For some reason Purity was suspected to be one of the village witches. Sometime in March 1992 something bizarre happened.

Emily's stepmother Abby, who lived in the same homestead, lost her daughter.

Police guard a burnt house in Kisii. Many people have been killed in this district on suspicion of practising witchcraft. Picture: Standard/File

There was no concrete evidence to this claims, save for the village rumour-mill. On the funeral day plans were hatched to eliminate Purity and Petro.

The following morning at around 3am as Purity and her ‘husband’ Emily were asleep in their house, a gang broke the door and stormed in. Emily's two children aged 14 and 10 were sleeping in the adjacent room.

On hearing a loud bang, Purity began to scream. She opened the bedroom door and a group of people entered. Emily said the first person to enter was Purity's grandson, Fred, carrying an iron bar. He hit Purity on the neck with the iron bar and the woman collapsed dead. Emily said she saw six people in the room, all of whom were familiar to her and were relatives of Purity.

They were all armed with metal bars and spears but she could not describe who carried what act as she was in shock. She said she identified them from the moonlight and flashes of their torches as they continued hitting and kicking Purity.

Emily said as she tried to bolt out through the window, they assured her that she would not be harmed as their mission had been accomplished.

After the killing, which took about half an hour, they dragged the body out of the house. A post-mortem examination revealed a fractured skull and broken ribs. A four-inch nail had been hammered into the head.

Purity's three stepsons Abel, Sammy and Joe and the grandson Fred were arrested together with another suspect, Eric. They were charged with the murder in the High Court in Kisii.

Emily's eldest son, being a minor, gave unsworn evidence. James, who had allegedly overheard some people plotting the murder, became a hostile witness (one who refuses to answer questions asked by the prosecution). The prosecutor was allowed to cross-examine him rather than lead him through evidence.

As he stood in the witness box, James shook and sweated profusely. The judge assured him of his safety. He said the first suspect, Abel, had threatened and assaulted him. James was so scared that he could not reveal everything he knew about the murder. All the suspects had recorded identical statement with the police.

Each statement read in part: "Yes, we killed the deceased because she was a wizard and she killed the child of my relative…and later came to dig the grave of this child. We gave chase, caught her and then killed her."

They, however, disowned the statements in court claiming they had been tortured to record them. After a trial within a trial, the judge admitted the statements as evidence. They made un-sworn evidence and called no witnesses but just denied all the allegations.

In July 1994 the High Court passed the verdict. What would be your verdict?