There was free-for-all drama at Bura Ndogo village in Taveta sub-county after a Tanzanian witchdoctor and his accomplice were arrested by members of the public.
This was after a failed attempt to resurrect a teenager who had committed suicide in 2017.
The witchdoctor had turned up at the homestead, accompanied by a look-alike 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 one 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 believing the story.
Things took a turn for the bizarre after the witchdoctor 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 this miracle.
There was a small problem though. The resurrected son could not talk; a situation the witchdoctor 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.
“He is very tired. Just give him time to recover and he will be okay,” advised the witchdoctor.
The Tanzanian was exploiting a dark Taveta mythology 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 an evil master.
During this time, the family of the person being held captive believe he is dead.
Then the witchdoctor’s gamble cape apart spectacularly. Word rapidly spread about the resurrected boy.
Within a short time, the compound was teeming with curious villagers, majority who had started casting doubt on the resurrection story.
They were especially upset that the teen, recently returned from the dead, 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 became 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 descended on the witchdoctor and his team.
It took the timely intervention of the police to rescue them.
While being rescued by police, the boy miraculously regained his speech powers and pleaded his innocence.
He said he had been persuaded to come to Kenya for some well-paying job and he had promptly accepted the offer.
Police said preliminary investigations show that the father of the deceased had been paid and colluded with the witchdoctor to hoodwink the public in a bid to attract clients.
