Another ritual murder case in Kenya. At least, all indications point to this cruel, senseless crime motivated by greed and based on superstition. Warning: the following stories contain graphic details of the murder of a young child (webmaster FVDK).
Murang’a: Girl, 8, found dumped with missing body parts hours after she disappeared
Published: March 2, 2021 By: Standard, Kenya – Ndungu Gachane
Shock has engulfed Kayu village in Kangema, Murang’a after a body of an eight-year-old girl was discovered badly mutilated and some body parts missing in what is believed to be a ritual killing.
According to the locals, the minor, Hannah Wambui went missing on Monday evening at around 7.30 pm. At the time, Wambui was at their shop located in their home compound and a search was immediately launched.
Kangema Subcounty Police Commander John Ogolla said they had arrested a 34-year-old neighbour of the deceased who is a casual labourer and was conducting investigations to establish whether he was involved in the murder.
Gideon Gitahi, the local Nyumba Kumi chairperson said after receiving a distress call from the deceased’s father, residents decided to move door to door in search of the little girl.
“Her mother had gone to look after a sick relative in Nairobi and so the deceased had been left under the care of her father. The girl went missing while the father was preparing supper in the main house,” said Gitahi.
He added that after conducting a search, the villagers found one of the deceased’s socks at the main suspect’s bedside and the police were promptly called.
Even after the police arrested the culprit, locals continued with their search mission for the whole night.
The long search came to an end after one of the neighbours who was involved in the search stepped on the body which had been dumped at a tea plantation.
Stephen Mwangi said the body had its private parts removed and skinned from the chest to the stomach.
“I could not look at the body twice, I made a distress call and when people came, they confirmed that it was the missing girl,” Mwangi said.
Mwangi joined his neighbours in alluding that the girl died of a cult activity but they also suspected that she could have been defiled before being killed.
“Her clothes were found in Kianguku shopping centre but her socks were found at the bed of the main suspect leads us to conclude that he could have defiled the minor,” locals claimed.
But it is the lack of bloodstains at the scene that baffled the locals who are yet to find any sign of bloodstains at any place in the village.
“Even if the girl was killed elsewhere and the body transferred to the scene, we could have seen bloodstains, and again the private parts were missing,” Gitahi said.
The deceased was a Standard One pupil at Rwathia Primary School and was the firstborn in a family of two.
Outrage over ritual-like murder of 8 year-old girl in Murang’a
Entrance to a Kenya police station
Published: March 2, 2021 By: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation – Sylvia Ombuya/ Wambui Mwangi
Police in Murang’a County have launched investigations into the mysterious murder of an 8 year-old girl.
The badly mutilated body of Hannah Wambui was discovered shortly after she went missing on Monday evening
According to residents of Kayu village in Kangema Constituency , the minor went missing on Monday evening at around 7:30 pm at their shop located in their home compound when the search ensued.
According to area Nyumba Kumi Initiative chairperson Gideon Gitahi, residents decided to conduct a door to door search for the girl after receiving a distress call from the deceased father.
“Her mother had gone to look after a sick relative in Nairobi and so the deceased had been left under the care of her father. When the father was preparing supper, the girl was in their shop located in their homestead. After conducting a search from door to door, we found one sock at the bed of the main suspect and we called the police, it was around 10pm,” Gitahi said.
Even after the police arrested the culprit, locals continued with their search mission overnight.
“Her clothes were found in Kianguku shopping centre but her socks were found at the bed of the main suspect leading us to conclude that he could have defiled the minor,” locals claimed.
One of the neighbors who was on his way to answer the distress call stumbled on the body which had been dumped at a tea plantation bringing to an end the long search.
According to Stephen Mwangi, the body had its private parts removed and skinned from the chest to the stomach in what has triggered fears that the murder could have been a ritual killing.
“I could not look at the body twice, I also made a distress call and people came and confirmed that it was the missing girl,” Mwangi said.
The deceased was a Standard One pupil at Rwathia Primary School and was the first born in a family of two.
The body of an eight-year-old who went missing last night (Monday) was on Tuesday, March 2 found in Kayu Village, Murang’a county. The girl was brutally murdered and dumped at a tea plantation
Hannah Wambui was a grade one pupil at Rwathia Primary school went missing on March 1, 2021. According to residents, she had been left in the care of her father after her mother left for Nairobi to care for a sick relative.
She reportedly went missing at 7:30 pm at their shop in the homestead while her father was making supper. The father called the local Nyumba Kumi Chair, Gideon Gitahi who called for an immediate door-to-door search.
“Her mother had gone to look after a sick relative in Nairobi and so the deceased had been left under the care of her father. The girl went missing while the father was preparing supper in the main house,” stated Gitahi.
One of the members of the search party raised an alarm after finding one of the girls’ socks in a man’s house.
“Her clothes were found in Kianguku shopping center but her socks were found at the bed of the main suspect leading us to conclude that he could have defiled the minor,” the locals reported.
However, police are also pursuing the angle of a ritual killing as the girl’s private parts had been removed.
The man was arrested but the search went on until one neighbor stepped on the body of the girl in a tea plantation.
“I could not look at the body twice, I made a distress call and when people came, they confirmed that it was the missing girl,” said Mwangi who has found the body.
There were no bloodstains at the scene where she was found which led the locals to believe that the act must have been propagated elsewhere.
“Even if the girl was killed elsewhere and the body transferred to the scene, we could have seen bloodstains, and again the private parts were missing,” added Gitahi.
Kangema Subcounty Police Commander John Ogolla said they arrested the 34-year-old man in whose house a sock was found and investigations are underway to unravel the murder.
In Zimbabwe, during the fourth quarter of last year the number of ritualistic murders or suspected ritual killings could no longer be counted. I’ve raised the question before whether there was a real surge in ritual murders or an increased interest of local media and the authorities for these heinous crimes – in the wake of the tragic death of the 7-year-old Tapiwa Makore, in Murehwa village, in September 2020.
To illustrate the foregoing I have selected a small number of recent ritual murder cases. I must emphasize that by presenting these cases I do not pretend to be exhaustive. It is to be feared that the murder cases reported and described here only represent the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Warning: the following articles contain graphic details of ritualistic activities (webmaster FVDK)
Horror as Mwenezi men kill brother’s child, cut off privates in another brutal ritual murder
The accused, Taruziva Sithole and Shackmore Dube, both from Chomutamba Village, in Mwenezi West, Zimbabwe
Published: December 31, 2020 By: iHarare, Zimbabwe – Tim E. Ndoro
In yet another very disturbing incident of ritual murder, two men from Mwenezi were arrested after they brutally murdered a 6-year-old girl, and cut off her private parts intending to sell them in South Africa for ritual purposes. One of the alleged murderers is the older brother of the victim’s father.
iHarare has learnt that Taruziva Sithole (37) and Shackmore Dube (26), both from Chomutamba Village 3 under Chief Mazetese in Mwenezi West, were arrested on December 30, barely 24 hours after committing the heinous crime.
Local publication TellZim reports that Dube who is a frequent traveller to South Africa told Sithole that his boss in South Africa was looking for the private parts of a young girl. He went on to say that if they delivered the gruesome package, they would be handsomely rewarded with a car and a lot of cash.
After being enticed by Dube’s promises of how to get rich quickly, Sithole plotted to kill Irene Sithole, his younger brother’s daughter.
On December 29 at around 8 pm, Sithole is alleged to have brutally assaulted Irene with a log until she collapsed and died due to the injuries sustained in the diabolical assault.
When he noted that his niece had died, Sithole placed her body in a plastic-weave bag, commonly referred to as Shangani Bag, and went to Dube who was waiting for him outside the Sithole homestead.
The two men then carried the body into the bush, where Dube proceeded to cut off the young girl’s private parts with a knife he had come prepared with. After getting the privates, Sithole and Dube burned Irene’s body in an attempt to destroy the evidence of their heinous crime.
However, Sithole’s wife who was appalled when she saw her husband brutally assaulting the little girl alerted the other villagers, who promptly informed the police.
Police officers from Mwenezi were dispatched to the village, where they discovered the little girl’s burnt remains. However, the private parts are yet to be recovered.
Sithole and Dube were arrested and charged with Irene’s murder. The two appeared before Mwenezi Magistrate Honest Musiiwa on Thursday. The Magistrate did not ask for them to plead and remanded them in custody.
In the last few months, Zimbabwe has been plagued with cases of brutal ritual murders in which minors are being murdered by people for money-making charms. Some of the cases include that of 7-year-old Tapiwa Makore of Murehwa who was murdered and decapitated allegedly at the instructions of his uncle and namesake Tapiwa Makore Senior.
Published: December 31, 2020 By: TellZim News – Cephas Shava
MWENEZI – In probably one of the most gruesome murder akin to the Murehwa boy’s callous murder, two Mwenezi men connived and allegedly murdered a six-year-old girl and burnt her body after removing her genitals
The two accused, Taruziva Sithole (37) and Shackmore Dube (26), who both reside at Chomutamba Village 3 under Chief Mazetese in Mwenezi West, were arrested yesterday, December 30, after allegedly committing the offence the previous day.
The two were not asked to plead when they appeared before Mwenezi Magistrate Honest Musiiwa today, December 31.
Musiiwa remanded them in custody for the murder of the minor who is daughter to Sithole’s younger brother.
It is alleged that on December 29, the two accused persons connived to kill Irene Sithole who lived at the same homestead with Sithole. On the same day at around 20:00, Sithole began to assault Irene using a log and she collapsed and died as a result of the assault.
Upon realising that the girl had died, Sithole took a Shangani bag and placed the deceased’s body inside and went to meet Dube who was reportedly waiting for him outside the homestead.
In the dead of the night, the two carried the body to the bush where Dube reportedly used a knife to cut the girls’ vaginal lips which he allegedly intended to sell to South Africa.
In an attempt to conceal the evidence, the two accused allegedly burnt the girls’ body using some firewood.
The matter came to light after Sithole’s wife, who had seen her husband beating the deceased, alerted other villagers who later on informed the police. Mwenezi police attended the murder scene where they recovered the minor’s burnt skull, teeth and ribs.
The girls’ private parts was not yet recovered by the time of writing.
Sources said the two decided to kill the girl after Dube, who often travels to South Africa, promised that upon delivering the private parts to his boss who is outside the country, they would be rewarded with a car and a lot of money.
In a yet another case of ritual murder, two men from Mwenezi allegedly murdered a six-year-old girl and burnt her body after removing her private parts.
This comes after the dust has hardly settled following the murder of a 7-year-old Murehwa boy, Tapiwa Makore, which was followed by another gruesome murder of a juvenile in Gokomere, Masvingo last month, yet another murder case of a minor has been recorded in Mwenezi.
The suspects, Taruziva Sithole (37) and Shackmore Dube (26), have since appeared in court to answer to murder charges following an incident which happened on the 29th of December, 2020.
The deceased, Irene Sithole, allegedly died after being assaulted by her uncle, Taruziva Sithole, who is said to have carried the body to a nearby bush where Shackmore Dube allegedly cut off the deceased’s private parts.
The two accused allegedly burnt the deceased’s body using firewood and were arrested after villagers reported the matter to Mwenezi police.
Police officers found the deceased’s burnt skull, teeth and ribs at the crime scene.
The two accused persons were remanded in custody to the 14th of January 2021.
Another uncle murders own brother’s son for ritual purposes in shocking case
Published: November 27, 2020 By: iHarare, Zimbabwe – Vincent Masikati
In yet another very disturbing development, a man from Honde Valley, Manicaland recently confessed to murdering his own brother’s son for ritual purposes. The uncle to the deceased boy revealed that he harvested the minor’s private parts, arms, ears, and eyes after being contracted to do so by his other brother and a local businessman.
The case comes at a time when the country is still reeling from the brutal ritual murder of 7-year-old Tapiwa Makore of Murehwa, who was also murdered for ritual purposes at the instruction of his uncles.
iHarare has learned from the Manica Post that Jacob Muranganwa confessed after seemingly being tormented by the spirit of his nephew Zedek. Zedek was murdered last year, allegedly by Jacob.
The issue came to light when Jacob made the bizarre confession during a session of the traditional court held by Chief Mutasa. At the court session, Jacob’s other brother John said he wanted protection from his siblings James and Abraham. He alleged that the two were harassing him and accusing him of killing Zedek for ritual purposes.
Jacob shocked the court, however, by confessing to the ritual murder of Zedek and exposing everyone who was involved in the fiendish plot.
“I cannot endure this torment anymore. Every morning I wake up sleeping outside. At first, I thought I was sleep-walking, but when I started seeing Zedek’s image every night, I knew his avenging spirit was behind it all.
“Whenever it gets dark, l see the boy’s image. I am the only one who sees him, even when I am with someone else,”
Without being prodded, Jacob went on to narrate in graphic detail what had transpired.
“Sometime last year, my brother John, Kwambana and another businessman asked me to harvest a young boy’s body parts for money-making rituals.
“The next day I saw Zedek coming from school and I lured him to my workplace — John’s grinding mill. I promised to give him some money for his school fees and he obliged. I gave him sadza laced with Maragada pills.
“He ate the sadza and dozed off moments later. I took a hammer and hit him once on the head. Zedek died instantly. I took his body and hid it behind the grinding mill.
“After closing the grinding mill, I cut off the body parts. When John and his partners came to collect the body parts, they placed the body in a refrigerator. It stayed there for three days before they instructed me to hang it near Zedek’s home to make it appear like the boy had committed suicide,”
After noting that the matter was beyond his jurisdiction, Chief Mutasa handed the matter over to the local police station.
In another twist to the saga, John mysteriously died a week later and was buried last Friday. The local community as well as the Muranganwa family believe that he was haunted to an early grave by the spirit of his murdered nephew Zedek.
Curiously though, Jacob is reported to be walking scot-free after the police released him from custody despite the damning confession.
When reached for comment on the case, the police could neither confirm nor deny the matter. Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Tavhiringwa said,
“We have called Ruda Police Station and they could neither confirm nor deny that they are handling such a case. However, word doing the rounds in the community confirms the murder case. We will need to dig deeper with the investigations to get to the bottom of the issues,”
Latest on Zimuto ritual killing: father disputes that cousin who stewed son’s head is mentally ill
Published: December 9, 2020 By: Iharare, Zimbabwe – Vincent Masikiati
The father of the 9-year-old Zimuto boy who was brutally murdered in yet another ritual killing has spoken out saying he doubts that the perpetrator, his cousin, is mentally ill.
The nation was shocked to learn that 22-year-old Clever Chitiga had brutally murdered 9-year-old Trevor Mapxashike (also known as Mapwashike) and dismembered his body. Clever and Trevor’s father, Henry Mapxashike are cousins. After killing his nephew, Clever stewed the body in a pot after pounding it and seems to have prepared to feast on it. He was caught before he could continue with his bizarre ritual.
Trevor’s heartbroken father narrated how he made the gruesome discovery to local publication Herald,
“I almost collapsed, after forcing the door to one of his rooms, open. A trail of blood, which we believed to be my son’s, led us to his head which was being stewed in a big pot.
“The door had been locked from inside and I had to gain entry through the window and opened it from inside.
“My mother, who accompanied me to Clever’s homestead, used a stick to shove the head so that we could properly see what was in the pot and to our shock, it was my son’s head which was being stewed. He had shaved it using a broken beer bottle and pounded it with a pestle and mortar.”
Despite the shocking crime, Henry said that he bears no ill-will towards his cousin who brutally murdered his son and instead called for unity among his family members. He, however, questioned the narrative that Clever was mentally ill saying that his actions showed that some planning had gone into committing the vile deed.
“My only appeal and prayer is for the family to unite and get to the bottom of this because I think there is something behind this. We need to sit down and cleanse our family because this is strange and bizarre. It’s unheard of. When I got to Clever’s homestead, he had already fled from the scene after I had asked him if he had seen my son,” he said.
“I believe there was juju at play because from what I know, Clever never had a history of mental illness. In fact, his discreetness and the way he tried to conceal evidence of his diabolic act smacks of someone who is mentally stable.”
Clever’s brother, Brine Chitiga (40) also ruled out mental illness. Brine said that he suspected that his young brother was being tormented by the spirit of a person whom he murdered when he was into gold panning a few years back. He also said that his younger brother may have been into occultism and juju.
“I suspect that he (Clever) might be tormented by an avenging spirit. He might have killed a person in Mberengwa where he was panning for gold since 2018.
“He started acting strangely after he returned from Mberengwa. He always threatened to kill people and was acting strangely,” he said.
The local community as well as the traditional leaders have called on the Mupxashike family to hold a cleansing ceremony to remove the dark could hanging over the family following the death of Trevor. Most of the community said that they had never witnessed or heard of anything like the Zimuto ritual killing of young Trevor
This posting is the first in a row of three which focus on Nigeria’s security problems. The objective is to outline a general phenomenon – ritual killings – not to focus on a specific murder case. Eventually, we will include specific examples of ritualistic acts, notably murders, known in Nigeria as ‘money-rituals’ (FVDK).
Nigeria: Curbing The Menace Of Ritual Killings In South West
The reported cases of missing persons are on the increase. Almost on a daily basis someone gets missing or killed and this has become a source of concern to most Nigerians. In this report, ALO ABIOLA, examines the menace and what could be done to check it.
Published: January 29, 2021 By: Leadership, For God And Country – Alo Abiola
When irate mob, made up of mostly youths stormed the Sotitobire Miracle Centre and razed it over a missing child known as Kolawole Gold, who was a year old in Ondo State allegedly killed for rituals, many had residents of the state had thought that the menace of ritual killing would be a thing of the past in the entire South West region.
More so, that the church building and other property worth millions of naira were set ablaze on the day of the attack. Two other houses located close to the church were also torched. About five cars, including a police van, were also burnt.
Alas, the reverse is the case. Innocent lives are still being lost to the activities of armed robbers, bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and particularly ritual killers, with little or no action taken by the government and security agencies to arrest the situation.
Killing for ritual purposes and dealing in human parts are gradually assuming an alarming rate in Nigeria and the trend calls for serious actions from government at all levels.
It has been discovered that people get involved in ritual killings for different reasons and purposes.
Observers opined that the basic reasons why people irrespective of gender, age, race, religion are into it, is the lust for money, power and fame.
To achieve their dream and make things happen fast, most of these people kill while others prefer to dig graves or visit mortuaries to remove needed human parts for rituals.
As the menace snowballs, cemetery guards and workers are said to be conniving with those who deal in human parts to exhume bodies and remove vital parts and place the body back into the grave.
Reports have it that some herbalists, especially those trading in herbal stuff and even influential Nigerians engage people to get human parts for them.
It is unfortunate that this is still happening despite the increased religious activities in the country and global technological advancement.
The issue came to fore again on Sunday, January 17, 2021, when a man, people claimed was a suspected kidnapper, was arrested in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
The yet-to- be identified man, who was arrested in an uncompleted three-storey building located opposite Ekiti State Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado Ekiti was alleged to specialise in selling human parts.
It was gathered that pictures of the victims of the suspect, ATM cards, filled passbook leaflets, a damaged phone and a cow horn were found in his possession in the building.
Some residents of the area, who could not properly identify the suspect, accused him of feigning madness and disguising as a lunatic on the street, insisting that he was using the building for his evil acts.
It took the intervention of the police to rescue the suspect from being lynched by a mob at the scene.
Reacting to the development, the Ekiti State Police Command through its spokesman, Sunday Abutu, an assistant superintendent of police said the mental state of the suspect is being investigated.
He said, “Today being January 17, 2021 at about 1350hrs, information was received that an irate mob was about to lynch a suspect at the front of an uncompleted building, opposite Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti.
“The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) personnel swung into action immediately by moving to the scene. The suspect was rescued to the station where investigation is currently ongoing to ascertain the state of the mental health of the suspect, as he is currently showing a sign of somebody with an unsound mind.
“Items recovered from the suspect are: two damaged handsets, one cow horn, five bank cheque leaves, six ID cards, nine ATM cards of four banks, all belonging to seven different people.
“The command implores everyone to disregard the information that the suspect is a kidnapper until investigation is concluded while assuring the people of Ekiti State that the investigation will be extended to the psychiatric hospital for medical examination.
“The Ekiti State commissioner of police, Mr Tunde Mobayo, while advising citizens to avoid taking laws into their hands anytime a suspect is arrested, implores them to always report to the nearest police station, any person or group of persons suspected to be criminals found around their environment or call 08062335577.”
For Muyiwa Salako, a community leader in the state, with the proliferation of religious groups and faith -based organisations in our country, one would have expected that these heinous acts would have reduced drastically, but unfortunately the opposite is the case.
‘’Happenings in recent times have proved that some self-acclaimed religious leaders and clerics are evil men using religion as cover up.
There were several reported cases of such fake and false clerics who were involved in the evil act.
‘’Many of them were said to have worked in cahoot with herbalists and occult people to kill and bury the head or the entire body of their victims at the altar of their church or wherever they used for their religious gathering.
‘’This is to ensure the influx of new members into their fold from time to time.
‘’Thankfully, the long arm of law is fast catching up with some of these “pastors and alfas” who are being arrested for similar acts,’’ he said.
LEADERSHIP Friday learnt that several evil forests used as kidnappers’ and ritualists’ dens were discovered in some parts of the country by security agents, where fresh and decomposing human parts were recovered.
A few years ago, there was a surge in the mysterious killing of people in one of the Southwestern state by members of a dreaded cult group.
They allegedly stormed victims’ residences while they were asleep, hypnotised them and smashed the skulls of the victims with heavy stones after which they used a handkerchief to clean the blood and brain before leaving the scene.
Some suspects, arrested in connection with the killings, were said to have revealed that each handkerchief stained with blood was sold for N500,000 to wealthy politicians, businessmen, industrialists and other well-to-do Nigerians who use them to prepare spiritual defence rituals.
It was reported some time ago that a herbalist, arrested alongside some suspected ritual killers in the southern part of Nigeria, confessed that he was preparing concoction with human parts for his clients.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Friday on the recent incident, a resident of Ado Ekiti, Mr Akinola lamented that the abandoned building had been there for some time, saying it was not surprising that such a thing is happening there.
He called on the state government to confiscate the building if the owner was ready to complete it and put it to good use.
Another resident, Miss Tolani, said that it was the third time such an incident would be reported in the building and advised the state government to demolish it.
See my January 20 and January 25, 2021 postings for background information on this ritual murder. Warning: some readers may find the story disturbing (webmaster FVDK).
Tharaka Nithi girl killed in bizarre ritual sacrifice buried
The mother of nine-year-old Debra Kagendi, the girl who was beheaded in a suspected ritual sacrifice, holds her daughter’s portrait during burial on January 26, 2021 in Tharaka Nithi County. Photo: Alex Njeru | Nation Media Group
Published: January 27, 2021 By: The Nation, Kenya – Alex Njeru
The nine-year-old girl from Tharaka Nithi who was beheaded last week in what was suspected to be a ritual sacrifice was on Tuesday buried in an emotional ceremony at her home in Mpingu village, Maara Sub-county.
Bitter relatives, local leaders, teachers and the villagers eulogised Debra Kagendi, who was a Grade Two pupil at Kiurani Primary School, as an obedient girl and demanded justice over her killing.
The Ameru Njuri Ncheke Council of Elders led by Maara Constituency chapter vice-secretary, Mr Gilbert Kathendu, also castigated the heinous act and urged the residents to remain calm as the matter goes on in court but vowed to conduct a traditional ritual to curse the act.
Cleansing prayers
The clergy also announced plans to conduct prayers in the region to cleanse the area of evil activities such as witchcraft.
Marimanti MCA Susan Ngugi and her Mwimbi counterpart Jonnes Kinegeni asked police to conduct thorough investigations and build a water-tight case against the suspected criminals.
Ms Ngugi decried the rise in child abuse and gender-based violence in Magutuni area and asked the local administration to weed out the criminals.
“We are urging those handling the murder case to make sure that the truth is known and justice is served,” said Ms Mwindu.
Mr Kinegeni urged parents to be keen on the whereabouts of their children, especially girls, because cases of child abuse are on the rise in the region.
Investigations ongoing
Mwimbi Deputy County Commissioner Elaine Kaale assured the residents that investigation officers are doing everything to unearth the truth that they will present in court against the suspects.
She called for calm and warned the villagers against taking the law into their hands by doing any vengeful act.
The body of the girl was found at the home of a suspected witch-doctor, Mr Suleiman Mati Mukiira, 94, on January 17, 2021.
Head found
Maara Sub-County Police Commander Mohammed Jarso said they found the head of the girl at a different place from where the torso was.
He added that they also found carcasses of a goat and chicken with missing hearts.
Following the incident, police arrested Mukiira and Mr Michael Ngugi Riungu, 32, who were presented in court as suspects.
Police asked for seven days to continue holding them as they conclud investigations.
On Monday, the two were brought before Senior Resident Magistrate Mwanamkuu Sudi but did not take a plea as police asked for more time to conduct a post-mortem on the girl’s body and also take the suspects for a mental tests.
At first sight this looks as ‘an ordinary or common’ murder case. So, no reason to include the crime on this website. However, upon further investigation there seems to be a ritualistic aspect. Apparently, preliminary reports indicate that the victim, the suspect’s daughter, had been murdered by her own father for ritual purposes and upon directives from an unnamed ritualist.
If future disclosures confirm or contradict the suspicion of a ritualistic act I will report it here. After all, the focus of this website is on ritual murders, i.e. murders committed for ritualistic purposes, based on superstition, and with the objective to increase the wealth, health, status, career or reputation of the perpetrator or an associate, a client or a relative. (webmaster FVDK).
UPDATE: Pastor killed daughter to fulfill ‘ritual obligations’ for power – Report
Pastor Boakye Gideon has been arrested by Nkoranza Police Command in the Bono East Region, Ghana
Published: January 18, 2021 By: GhanaWeb
Personnel of the Homicide Unit of the Ghana Police Service has exhumed the body of the 9-year-old girl who was gruesomely murdered by her father who is a pastor.
Even before the suspect Pastor Boakye Gideon of the Heavens Kingdom Palace Ministry International in Accra is arraigned before court and provisionally charged for murder, preliminary reports suggest the girl was murdered for ritual purposes.
The pastor at the centre of the crime claims that he beat the poor girl for committing an offense and she collapsed and died but evidence from the scene of the crime MyNewsGh.com has been told, suggests the deceased was gruesomely murdered by her biological father upon directives from an unnamed ritualist.
Though police investigators are tight-lipped over details as they conduct a DNA analysis on the skeletal remains of the exhumed body to establish if indeed it is the body of the girl, close family members including an uncle disclosed to this portal they suspect she was deliberately murdered.
Pastor Gideon Boakye who is currently in the custody of Nkoranza Police Command in the Bono East Region upon his arrest on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, confessed that he killed his daughter and secretly buried her at Nkoranza cemetery. (NB The original article stated erroneously January 13, 2020 – italics FVDK)
He later led the police and the family members to Nkoranza cemetery where he showed them where he buried his daughter after the dastardly act.
Nyarfo Samuel, Uncle of the deceased speaking in an interview with an investigative team comprising Pure FM’s Osei Kwadwo and MyNewsGh.com’s reporters said, Boakye Queenster known popularly among relations as Maame Ama has been staying with her mother’s family in Nkoranza since she was born until recently when the man came for her.
Recently, there has been an upsurge in ritualistic murders or allegations of ritual killings in the country. See my previous postings (January 2021, December 2020, November 2020) on suspected and reported cases – although we always have to bear in mind that very likely the number of suspected and discovered ritual murders are only the tip of the iceberg.
The reason for this apparent increase in the number of ritual murders is not known.
The case reported below has all the characteristics of a ritual murder. However, since the body found had decomposed beyond recognition after remaining in water for weeks, an autopsy will be needed the determine the cause of the victim’s death.
It was reported that three months ago another child had been found dead in the river. (webmaster FVDK).
Ritual killing? Embu pupil says he slaughtered cousin, drank blood
Image: The Star
Published: January 15, 2021 By: The Star, Kenya – Reuben Githinji
In Summary
• Mutwiri went missing in late December from his home in Kavengero, Mbeere North.
• The suspect and his accomplices lured him as he played at home and took him to the river.
A Embu boy, 16, led police in the search and recovery of the body of his four-year-old cousin he allegedly murdered and drank his blood in a suspected ritual sacrifice.
The Standard 8 pupil on Wednesday led detectives to River Thuci where they recovered the body of Brayden Mutwiri. It had decomposed beyond recognition after remaining in water for weeks. Mutwiri went missing in late December from his home in Kavengero, Mbeere North.
The suspect and one of his accomplices were arrested on Monday and held at Siakago police station. He directed the police to the river where the body was found stuck between two rocks.
Speaking to the press at the scene, their uncle Nephat Nyaga said the suspect narrated how he and his accomplices murdered the boy, drank his blood, then threw his body into the river.
The suspect and his accomplices lured the boy as he played at home and took him to the river.
Area chief Charles Njeru told the press that the boy mysteriously disappeared from home in late December and residents had been searching for him since.
Njeru said the bereaved family will have to wait for the postmortem result to ascertain that the body is Mutwiri’s.
The local administrator said this was the second incident of a missing child being found dead in the river. The first was a girl who went missing and her body retrieved from the river three months ago.
Njeru cautioned residents against settling their family grudges by attacking and killing children, urging them instead to follow the legal procedures of resolving disputes.
Residents condemned the killing and called for quick investigations so the killers are brought to book.
Purity Muringo said parents from the area now live in fear for the security of their schoolchildren. She said lives are at stake. Muringo called for thorough investigations to unravel the mysterious killings of innocent children.
Police retrieve body of four-year old who went missing
The body of Brayden Mutwiri was retrieved from River Thuci in Embu County. [Standard]
Published: January 14, 2021 By: The Standard, Kenya – Murithi Mugo
The body of a four-year-old boy from Kavengero in Mbeere North Sub-County, Embu who went missing three weeks ago was yesterday found and retrieved from Thuci River.
The body of Brayden Mutwiri was retrieved after a long search since late December when he went missing.
Nephat Nyaga, uncle to the deceased said a 16-year-old boy is the main suspect.
Nyaga said the boy narrated how, with other accomplices from the area lured the deceased while playing at home and took him to the river where they killed him before dumping his body.
According to Nyaga, the suspects used the boy to commit the crime with a promise of monetary reward.
Warning: the graphic contents of the following articles may shock readers. (webmaster FVDK).
Girl’s severed head found in ‘witch doctor’s’ house
Published: January 19, 2021 By: The Star, Kenya – By Cyrus Ombati and Gerald Mutehia
In Summary
•Residents at a church at Magutuni said they heard screams from the girl, so they rushed to the scene, a so-called ‘witch doctor’s’ house.
• She had been slaughtered, and so had a goat. The men were feasting on meat – whose?
A headless goat’s carcass found at the home of the alleged witchdoctor at Mpingu village
Police are holding a suspected witch doctor and his client after a nine-year-old girl was beheaded and her heart cut out in a ritual murder in Tharaka Nithi.
When police arrived on Sunday afternoon, they said they found two men – a ‘traditional healer’ and his client – eating meat. It was not clear if it was human flesh, a beheaded sacrificial goat or a chicken whose hearts had been ripped out.
The girl was a milkmaid who regularly delivered milk and was seeking payment.
Congregants from a nearby church said they had reprimanded Suleiman Mati Mukira 94, from Mpingu village, Kiroo sub-location and his client. The police report also named Mukira.
Congregants heard the girls’ screams, raised the alarm and rushed to the scene.
The body in a gunny bag and the severed head were recovered from the witch doctor’s home on Sunday afternoon.
Police said they demanded to be shown the girl who screamed and was shown a girl’s headless torso.
The homeowner told police his client had slaughtered the girl as a sacrifice.
Police identified the girl as Deborah Kagendi Kinengeni who had delivered milk to the homestead.
The men turned violent when police were called to the scene and conducted a search leading to more discoveries.
The body of the child was found hidden in a goat shed. The head was found nearby.
Police said they also found slaughtered chickens whose hearts had been ripped out.
Eastern head of DCI Jeremiah Ikiao said they are trying to establish if the murder was isolated or part of serial ritual murders.
“It looks like a ritual but we will know more as investigators work on the incident,” he said. The remains of the girl were moved to the mortuary.
Police plan to produce the two in court and seek time to hold them while they conduct investigations.
“OCS Magutuni, DCI officers and SCPC Maara rushed to the scene and found the child having been killed. Her body was concealed in a goat shed, her head was cut off and placed outside the goat shed.
“Outside the compound was a slaughtered goat. Inside Mukira’s house was a slaughtered chicken and witchcraft items,” a police report seen by the Star reads.
Preliminary observation has shown that the girl’s heart was missing, police said. Witchcraft paraphernalia were found nearby. Police collected two blood-stained pangas.
Police at Ntumu station are holding the suspects as they investigate.
The body was taken to Chuka Hospital morgue for a postmortem.
Kenya: Murdered Tharaka Nithi Girl Victim of Ritual Sacrifice
Published: January 19, 2021 By: Nation Media Group, Kenya – Alex Njeru
A key suspect in Sunday’s bizarre murder of a nine-year-old girl from Mpingu village in Maara Sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, has claimed that he was offering a sacrifice to a witchdoctor.
In a shocking revelation to the parents of the murdered girl at Chogoria Police Station where the 32-year-old man is in custody, he said he had been directed to sacrifice a girl, goat and a chicken and surrender the hearts so that he could be protected from his relatives “who were planning to kill him”.
The suspect is being held together with the alleged 94-year-old witchdoctor. The suspect from Kariakomo village in Ganda ward, and who is a frequent visitor of the old man according to villagers, confessed that he killed a white chicken, a goat and the girl; whom the old man called from a nearby church.
Addressing the media, Maara Sub-county Police Commander Mohammed Jarso said the hearts of the slaughtered goat and chicken were missing but that of the girl was intact.
“The girl was beheaded but no part of the body was missing,” said Mr Jarso.
Police said the suspected witchdoctor claimed that his client turned violent and killed the goat and chicken before turning on the girl, who was picking some passion fruits at his farm.
Pick a bottle
He claimed that he had called the girl to pick a bottle that she had used to deliver some milk to him in the morning.
Mr Jarso said the matter is still under investigation, but added that the key suspect could be suffering from mental illness.
According to police, the old man reported the murder.
The villagers, among them worshippers at the Full Gospel Church led by Ms Josephine Mpuria, however claim that he rushed to the police after sensing danger from the residents who were threatening to lynch the two.
Ms Mpuria said the old man has been suspected of practicing witchcraft for a long time, but most of his customers come from far-off places.
‘Witch-doctor’
“Everybody in the village knows the old man as a witch-doctor and it has never been a secret,” said Ms Mpuria. She added that they suspect the old man has been demanding human sacrifices from his clients, and asked the police to conduct thorough investigations including searching his houses and farm.
Mr Evans Mawira, the girl’s brother, said that, when asked what had happened, the old man told him that he was ready to give him his only dairy cow in exchange for the girl.
“When I pushed the old man from where he was sitting down, I discovered the head of my sister and screamed in shock,” said Mawira.
Mr Ignatius Mutunga, the girl’s father, who received news of the heinous act while in Nairobi where he works, pleaded for justice to be done noting that the old man should not try to exonerate himself from the crime.
He said that, although he had been hearing that the old man is a witchdoctor, he has been selling milk to him and his children delivered it when they were not in school.
“I have lost my loving daughter and I am pleading for justice,” said Mr Mutunga.
The incident has left the villagers in shocked.
The two are expected to be arraigned in Chuka today (Tuesday).
Tharaka Nithi girl’s head severed in suspected ritual killing
The scene in Maara Sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, where a girl was found dead on January 17, 2021, in a suspected case of a ritual killing.
Published: January 19, 2021 By: Nation Media Group, Kenya – Alex Njeru
A suspected witchdoctor and his client were Sunday arrested in Maara Sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, for allegedly killing a nine-year-old girl for a ritual.
In the incident at Magutuni, people worshipping at the nearby Full Gospel Church said they heard a girl’s cries but initially didn’t pay much attention to them.
They said that after completing the service, they decided to find out what had happened so they went to the alleged witchdoctor’s home.
There they reportedly found the 94-year-old and his client eating meat but were quickly shown a slaughtered goat.
Suspicious behaviour
The people said they then demanded to know where the girl the suspected witchdoctor had earlier called from the church was.
Resident James Mutembei said the girl delivered milk to the old man every day for pay.
The residents said that upon asking about the Grade Two pupil’s whereabouts, the man and his client turned violent, prompting them to call police.
Mr Mutembei said that when police arrived, their search found the girl’s severed head hidden in a chicken coop.
When the police officers forced the two to show them the body, they were led to one of the houses in the compound, the residents said.
They added that they also found three slaughtered chickens with missing hearts.
“The old man, who is a known witchdoctor in the village, called the girl and asked her to collect some bottles. That is when the two slaughtered her and ate her heart,” Mr Mutembei claimed.
Police report
The suspects were taken to Ntumu Police Station and a probe opened.
A report from Magutuni Police Station gave a different account as reported by the 94-year-old, whom police said is a witchdoctor from Mpingu village, Kiroo.
The report says that in his report filed at the station, he told police that his client went to his home and attacked the girl.
The report says the girl’s body was found hidden in a goat shed, her head outside the shed and a slaughtered goat outside the compound.
Police said that inside the old man’s house was a slaughtered chicken and items used for witchcraft.
They collected two stained machetes from the scene.
The story presented below is not about ritual killing, or muti murders, as these crimes based on superstition and witchcraft are called in Southern Africa. It’s about the violent death of children including muti murder, however.
As stated in the article below, “According to official figures, around 1,000 children are murdered every year in South Africa, nearly three a day. But that statistic, horrific as it may be, may be an undercount.”.
The same applies for muti murders. The muti cases known are just the top of the iceberg.
For this reason I have decided to include the following article which was originally published by Associated Press (webmaster FVDK).
In South Africa, child homicides show violence ‘entrenched’
Mourners look at the body of 5-year-old Wandi Zitho at his funeral in Orange Farm, South Africa, on April 28, 2020. The boy was murdered in a suspected witchcraft ritual and his body was found in his neighbor’s tavern. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Published: December 22, 2020 By: KSAT.com / Associated Press – Gerald Imray And Bram Janssen
CAPE TOWN – At night, Amanda Zitho worries her little boy is shivering and cold in his coffin and yearns to take him a blanket. She knows Wandi’s dead and gone and it’s senseless, but that doesn’t stop the ache.
Wandi was 5 when he was killed in April, allegedly strangled with a rope by a Johannesburg neighbor — another dead child in a land where there are too many.
According to official figures, around 1,000 children are murdered every year in South Africa, nearly three a day. But that statistic, horrific as it is, may be an undercount.
Shanaaz Mathews thinks many more children are victims of homicides that are not investigated properly, not prosecuted or completely missed by authorities. The official figures are “just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mathews, the director of the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town and probably the country’s leading expert on child homicides.
In a country where more than 50 people are murdered every day, children are not special and are not spared.
“Violence has become entrenched” in the psyche of South Africa, Mathews said.
“How do we break that cycle?” she asked.
In 2014, she embarked on a research project to uncover the real extent of those child deaths. She did it by getting forensic pathologists to put the dead bodies of hundreds of newborn babies, infants, toddlers and teenagers on examination tables to determine exactly how they died.
Child death reviews are common in developed countries but had never been done in South Africa before Mathews’ project. As she feared, the findings were grim.
Over a year, the pathologists examined the corpses of 711 children at two mortuaries in Cape Town and Durban and concluded that more than 15% of them died as a result of homicides. For context, Britain’s official child death review last year found 1% of its child deaths were homicides. Mathews’ research showed homicide was the second most common cause of death for children in those two precincts.
“And the numbers are not going down,” she said. “If anything, they are going up.”
There are two patterns in South Africa. Teenagers are being swallowed up in the country’s desperately high rate of violent street crime. But also, large numbers of young children aged 5 and under are victims of deadly violence meted out not by an offender with a gun or a knife on a street corner, but by mothers and fathers, relatives and friends, in kitchens and living rooms, around dinner tables and in front of TVs.
Fatal child abuse is where the justice system often fails and cases are “falling through the cracks,” Mathews said.
There was, she says, the case of a 9-month-old child who had seizures after being dropped off at day care. Though rushed to the hospital, the child died.
Doctors found severe head injuries and told the mother to go to the police, but no one followed up. The mother never reported the death. When investigators tried to revive the case nearly two years later, the baby had long been buried and the evidence was cold.
Joan van Niekerk, a child protection expert, recounts numerous cases tainted by police ineptitude and corruption.
“I sometimes go through stages when I am more angry with the system than I am with the perpetrators and that’s not good,” she said. She said justice for children in South Africa is unacceptably “hard to achieve.”
And failures of justice sometimes lead to more deaths.
The neighbor originally charged with killing Wandi Zitho was released and the case provisionally dropped because the police didn’t deliver enough evidence, possibly because of a backlog in analyzing forensic evidence, according to one policeman working the case. Months later, the woman was arrested again and charged with murdering two other children.
Then there was the case of Tazne van Wyk.
Tazne was 8 when her body was found in February dumped in a drain near a highway nearly two weeks after she disappeared. She had been abducted, raped and murdered, police said.
Tazne’s parents blame the correctional system for paroling the man charged with their daughter’s murder despite a history of violent offenses against children. He’d already violated his parole once. They also fault police for failing to act on a tip that might have saved Tazne in the hours after her disappearance.
The case was high profile. The Minister of Police spoke at Tazne’s funeral and admitted errors. “We have failed this child,” he conceded, pointing at Tazne’s small white coffin, trimmed in gold. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the van Wyk home and promised meaningful action.
Nine months later, Tazne’s parents feel it was all lip service.
“How many children after Tazne have already passed away? Have been kidnapped? Have been murdered? Still nothing is happening,” said her mother, Carmen van Wyk.
She sheds no tears. Instead, anger bubbles inside her and her community. Houses connected with the suspect and members of his family were set on fire in the wake of Tazne’s killing.
It’s not just on the police to stop the abuse, said Marc Hardwick, who was a policeman for 15 years, 10 of them as a detective in a child protection unit.
He recalls one case, from 20 years ago. A 6-year-old girl was beaten to death by her father because she was watching cartoons and, distracted as any 6-year-old would be, wasn’t listening to him.
When they arrested the father and took him away — he was later sentenced to life in prison — the victim’s 9-year-old cousin approached Hardwick and said: “I think you stopped my bad dreams today.”
Clearly, children in that household had been living a nightmare, and the other adults had remained silent, said Hardwick: “The reality is that child abuse is not a topic people want to talk about.”
Allegedly, another case of ritual murder in Zimbabwe. A 6-year-old girl brutally murdered in Mwenezi, for apparent superstitious reasons. Zimbabwe has not yet recovered from one of its most notorious ritual murder cases in its recent history – the murder of 7-year-old Tapiwa Makore, in Murehwa village, in September 2020, extensively covered on this site – and of the cruel murder of a juvenile in Gokomere, Masvingo last month.
It is difficult to say whether there is in increase in ritualistic activities and murders in Zimbabwe or – also a likely explanation – there is an increased attention of local and regional authorities as well as the press – for this type of crimes and to report actual or suspected incidents. (Webmaster FVDK)
Mwenezi girl (6) killed in suspected ritual murder
In a yet another case of ritual murder, two men from Mwenezi allegedly murdered a six-year-old girl and burnt her body after removing her private parts.
This comes after the dust has hardly settled following the murder of a 7-year-old Murehwa boy, Tapiwa Makore, which was followed by another gruesome murder of a juvenile in Gokomere, Masvingo last month, yet another murder case of a minor has been recorded in Mwenezi.
The suspects, Taruziva Sithole (37) and Shackmore Dube (26), have since appeared in court to answer to murder charges following an incident which happened on the 29th of December, 2020.
The deceased, Irene Sithole, allegedly died after being assaulted by her uncle, Taruziva Sithole, who is said to have carried the body to a nearby bush where Shackmore Dube allegedly cut off the deceased’s private parts.
The two accused allegedly burnt the deceased’s body using firewood and were arrested after villagers reported the matter to Mwenezi police.
Police officers found the deceased’s burnt skull, teeth and ribs at the crime scene.
The two accused persons were remanded in custody to the 14th of January 2021.
Allegedly, five girls have been murdered for ritualistic purposes in the past two years. Are these murders linked? Is a serial murderer responsible for these heinous crimes? Or have all five girls been lost to ritual killings?
Unfortunately, information is lacking wether anyone has been caught in relation to these murders. But the residents of the area are outspoken: “These senseless killings have to be stopped by the government.”
Indeed, the government must protect its citizens and arrest and bring to trial perpetrators of ugly crimes such as kidnapping, rape, torture and murder. (Webmaster FVDK)
Mutilated body of girl, 14, discovered in thicket
Published: December 17, 2020 By: The Standard, Kenya – Osinde Obare
Residents of Moi’s Bridge Township are mourning the death of a 14- year-old girl in a suspected ritual killing.
The mutilated body of Mary Erwusa, a pupil at Nabiswa primary school, was discovered in a sack dumped at Baharani forest near the township.
Erwasu had been sent by her parents to a local shop on Tuesday at around 9am to buy sacks to store maize when she was waylaid by unknown assailants.
After the disappearance of the girl, residents formed four groups and embarked on a search mission up to midnight.
On Wednesday morning the group discovered the body in a nearby forest.
George Omenga, the girl’s father, strongly condemned the attack that took away his daughter’s life.
“I had sent my daughter to buy some sacks to store maize…It is a beastly act and it has left us with a big mark,” said Omenge.
Maurice Odour, a resident, said they suspected that the deceased was gang-raped before she was killed.
He said Erwusa’s killing brings to five the number of minors killed in the past two years under similar circumstances.
Odour linked the killing to a ritual owing to the state of the body.
“We have lost five girls to ritual killings. These senseless killings have to be stopped by the government,” he said.
Late last year, Stacy Nasibo, 10, disappeared before her body was discovered at a thicket near Moi’s bridge.
On February 15 this year, Lucy Wanjiku, 13, was murdered and her body dumped at the same thicket.
