Witch doctors are sacrificing children in drought-stricken Uganda

Doreen Ajiambo

Religion News Service
September 26, 2017

KATABI, Uganda (RNS) — Jackline Mukisa sobbed as she described how her 8-year-old son was found in a nearby swamp in February without teeth, lips, ears and genitals.

“My innocent son died a painful death,” said Mukisa, 28. “How could somebody intend to murder my son?”

A motorcyclist offered John Lubega a lift as he walked back from school, according to fellow students who saw him last. His remains suggest he was slowly killed as part of a human sacrifice ritual performed by witch doctors, apparently to appease the spirits, said Mukisa, who filed a police report.

No arrest has been made so far.

In this landlocked country whose diverse landscape includes the snow-capped Ruwenzori Mountains and immense Lake Victoria, many believe sacrificial rituals can bring quick wealth and health.

Among those rituals, human sacrifice, especially of children, occurs frequently despite the government’s efforts to stop it.

Seven children and two adults were sacrificed last year, said Moses Binoga, a police officer who heads Uganda’s Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force. Seven children and six adults were sacrificed in 2015.

But experts said the number could be much higher.

Times are tough in Uganda, and people are looking to sacrifices to improve their fortunes. The worst drought in over half a century has hit parts of East Africa, leaving more than 11 million people in this landlocked nation facing food insecurity and 1.6 million on the brink of famine, according to the Ugandan government.

“There is no food due to the ongoing drought, and some believe that this has been brought by ancestral spirits,” said Joel Mugoya, a traditional healer. “So there is a high desire for people to conduct sacrifices so that they come out of this problem.”

Recently, Uganda police arrested 44 suspects in Katabi, a town 24 miles from the capital, Kampala, in connection with a spate of killings of children and women. Half of the suspects have been charged in court, including two alleged masterminds.

Uganda Police Inspector General Kale Kayihura said one suspect confessed to killing eight women. More than 21 women have been killed between May 3 and Sept. 4, Kayihura said.

“The murders were for ritual sacrifices,” he told residents last week. “We are working hard to arrest the remaining suspects and end the practice.”

Francis Bahati’s wife was among the victims. He discovered her body after three days of searching. Her fingers and feet had been cut off for ritual purposes, likely in hopes of securing better fortunes.

“I was shocked and even lost consciousness,” he said.

Last year police arrested Herbert Were, a resident of Busia town in eastern Uganda, for beheading his 8-year-old brother, Joel Ogema. Were, 21, confessed to police that he killed his brother in hopes of attaining wealth.

Church leaders are teaming up with police to end the brutal practice.

Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga, who heads Kyampisi Childcare Ministries, a Christian organization that fights child sacrifice in Uganda, said children disappear in the country every week. They are often found dead, or alive with missing body parts.

Most survivors or victims do not file police reports, Sewakiryanga said, adding that he implores victims to come forward.

“It’s a serious problem but we are fighting it with the help of the government,” he said.

Sacrifices often involve removing body parts, blood or tissue while the child is still alive.

“It’s a brutal ritual that destroys the lives of our children and affects their parents mentally,” he added. “We are working with the police to arrest witch doctors involved in the ritual. We are also assisting the survivors financially and with moral support.”

Sewakiryanga said his charity worked with Ugandan police three years ago to arrest a witch doctor and his accomplices who sacrificed a 7-year-old girl named Suubi.

The witch doctor drained her blood and cut out her genitals, he said. He then cut the neck and drained the blood of the girl’s 10-year-old brother, Kanani.

In June, a Ugandan court sentenced the witch doctor to life in prison.

Fears of witch doctors have hurt women who practice traditional medicine, however.

According to KidsRights, a global organization that fights for the rights of children, Uganda has 650,000 registered traditional healers and an estimated 3 million unregistered practitioners. Unscrupulous witch doctors hide among so-called healers, the group said.

“They should arrest people who murdered my son,” Mukisa said. “The government is doing little to protect our children. They must begin to arrest all witch doctors.”

But Sewakiryanga said arresting everyone claiming to practice medicine was going too far. He hoped to end the practice by changing the hearts of those who promote human sacrifice.

Efforts to end the practice need to expand, he said. Other countries in Africa reported to be practicing child sacrifice include Tanzania, Nigeria, Swaziland, Liberia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

http://religionnews.com/2017/09/26/witch-doctors-are-sacrificing-children-in-this-drought-stricken-african-country/

Wellington woman loses $75,000 to a witchdoctor

JOHN WEEKES
Stuff
September 26 2016

They promised her heaven but put her through hell, a Wellington woman says of witchdoctors who misused the "Gayatri" brand.

It started with a $10 palm reading, but within a few weeks, she lost $75,000 to a smooth-talking hustler, a Wellington woman says.

"They are so determined. They brainwash you completely. You are in their hands," the woman, who does not want to be named, warned.

The woman came forward after recent reports about witchdoctors in New Zealand. Her experienced suggested the faith healers worked in Wellington longer than previously reported.

Dr Pushpa Wood says con artist faith healers target desperate people and take advantage of blind faith

One self-declared "world famous Indian astrologer" in 2013 was based in an Abel Smith St flat, near Cuba St.

The woman said she went to the witchdoctor and his wife for a palm reading after being handed a pamphlet at a street market.

She said the male witchdoctor was of South Indian origin, with a moustache and medium-length hair. He dressed inconspicuously when outside but wore yellow robes during ceremonies.

"They do wear priest's clothes in their house so you think they're good people."

They used incense, coconuts and flowers during ceremonies, and chanted "aum Kali, aum Kali," to the deity of the same name.

The couple forged a relationship with the woman, persuading her only they could rid her of evil spirits.

She said she was told one of her own children was in danger.

Soon the couple visited her house in suburban Wellington. The man noticed a dead bird outside, and said this was proof her house had a malevolent spirit.

Soon, the woman was too scared to be home alone, so the witchdoctor's wife came to stay with her.

"I was scared. I could not come into my house. They said 'there's a spirit in your house'."

The witchdoctors made increasingly dramatic predictions, spoke of sacrifices, then told her she had only a week to live.

Tormented and scared, she succumbed to demands, went to the bank, and handed over $25,000 cash.

She also handed over cash and jewellery worth another $50,000 later in 2013.

The witchdoctors left the country, but kept calling her.

On Monday, a man who answered one of the phone numbers said he had been to New Zealand, but only in 2008.

He said he did the shami pooja ritual, astrology and horoscope reading but not other practices of the kind advertised.

"There are some good people ... there are some bad people," he said when allegations of wrongdoing were put to him.

His service didn't offer refunds, but he urged the complainant to come to Bangalore.

The woman said she no longer believed in black magic but was angry at herself for losing so much money and wanted others to avoid the same fate.

NZ Skeptics spokeswoman Vicki Hyde said it might seem easy to blame the woman, but huge financial losses to "psychic" con artists weren't unusual.

"She doesn't deserve to be terrified, or taken advantage of."

A 2007 study found one local woman paid $13,000 to a psychic hotline to remove a bad spell.

Hyde said victims generally sought help with sex, family, money or health problems.

"People just want a better life for themselves. What we need to encourage is people to stop and think a bit critically about what they've been told."

Dr Puspha Wood of Westpac Massey Financial Education Centre said mediums used three frailties to exploit others: claiming they could communicate directly with deities, targeting desperate people and taking advantage of blind faith.

"My advice to people is have trust in your own ability to communicate directly with your god, whoever that may be."

 - Stuff


http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84653153/wellington-woman-loses-75000-to-a-witchdoctor

Woman dies during extreme exorcism ritual

Sarah Adoyo

Tuko

March 1, 2016

– Witch doctors put a woman in a wooden barrel to dispel demons
– Villagers rushed to her aid but it was too late — they steamed her to death

A woman, cnamed only as Li, was boiled alive during a bizarre exorcism ritual conducted by two Chinese witch doctors.

A woman in Sichuan province was steamed to
 death during an exorcism in Sichuan province

A blood-curdling incident took place in Sichuan province, China last Saturday, on February 27.

The victim reportedly suffered from an unknown painful disease for several years until her relatives hired two shamans to cure her from demons.
According to Li’s fellow villager Liu Jun, early on Saturday morning the neighbours heard her hysterical screams and rushed to her aid.
 

Two witch doctors were hired by the woman’s
 family to rid her of evil spirits

But what they saw in her house was terrifying — the woman was in a large wooden barren heated by the vat of boiling water underneath.

The shocked villagers demanded the “wizards” to stop but they refused to stop saying it was the demon screaming in the woman’s body.

Nevertheless, the locals managed to free half-conscious Li, whose face already turned coal-black.

Unfortunately, she passed away shortly after medical workers arrived and tried to resuscitate her.

Police arrested both witch doctors and is now investigating the details behind the woman’s death.

https://tuko.co.ke/101527-witch-doctors-steams-woman-death-exorcise-demons-photos.html

Tanzania arrests 32 witch doctors over albino murders

Fumbuka Ng'Wanakilala

DAR ES SALAAM

March 6, 2015

(Reuters) - Police in Tanzania said on Friday they had arrested 32 witch doctors this week as part of a campaign against ritual killings of albinos.

Activists say attackers have killed at least 75 albinos in the east African country since 2000 to use their limbs and other body parts as charms meant to guarantee success in love, life and business.

President Jakaya Kikwete last week vowed to stamp out the practice he said brought shame onto the east African country, and albino campaigners called on authorities on Friday to execute people convicted of the murders.

"The witch doctors were arrested in possession of different items, including potions and oil from an unknown source," the police chief in the north-western town of Geita, Joseph Konyo, told reporters.

He did not say whether they had been charged, or caught with anything relating to albinos, whose condition means they lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair.

Seventeen people convicted of the murders are currently on death row, including four sentenced to death on Thursday -- but Tanzania has not carried out an execution for two decades.

"We want all those convicted of killing persons with albinism to be hanged without delay in order to send a strong message that these attacks will no longer be tolerated," the chairman of the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS), Ernest Kimaya, told Reuters.

"We made this appeal directly to the president during our meeting with him this week and he expressed his commitment to us that the government will expedite the process of carrying out executions of death row inmates convicted of such killings."

Kimaya said the members feared the attacks, recently on the rise, would become even more frequent in the build-up to October elections, as some politicians turned to witch doctors to try to increase their chance of winning.

"It is true that there is a link between elections and a rise in attacks on persons with albinism. It is something that we are aware of," Kimaya said.

Similar beliefs exist in other African societies about albinos. But activists say attacks are particularly prevalent in Tanzania.

Home Affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe told Reuters the president had to give a written consent for an execution to be carried out.

(Reporting by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala; Editing by George Obulutsa)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/06/uk-tanzania-albinos-idUKKBN0M213720150306