Dispute over land ownership and the associated sorcery and murder accusations was a common category of social disruption handled by MB. Conflicts between siblings over land inherited from parents and accusations or suspicions of witchcraft were quite common at MB’s healing sessions. Land disputes were also common among unrelated persons over boundaries or land transactions gone sour. The case of Mr. John Mbago was one example of how such disputes were interpreted and handled by MB’s ritual healing. Even though I use the case of Mbago to illustrate how altercations over land were divined as sources of affliction, this example serves more to show how MB often widened his scope of healing from the initial complaint by a client to other occurrences seemingly unrelated to the initial one but which, in his opinion, were aspects of the same social disruption. Mbago’s initial complain revolved around land and an apparent tapering off of his economic fortunes. The land dispute between Mbago and his stepbrothers turned out to be the key explanation not only to Mbago’s initial complaints but also to other problems experienced by his children.
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The identification of the entire scope of investigation and reconstruction was always done through the X-ray process. Naturally, this then required more time for rituals, a wider range of issues to examine and deal with, inclusion of more of Mbago’s children and definitely more resources in terms of time and money from the clients:.
Mbago was a 65 years old farmer and a retired government employee who lived in Kitale.
He owned several parcels of land on which he grew maize. One of the parcels was inherited from his father, but he had used his savings from the government job to purchase other parcels of land. Mr, Mbago was a successful maize farmer and owned items that marked him as prosperous. Apart from delivering several hundred bags of dried maize every year to the national cereals board, he owned a pick up track, and a tractor. He had built himself a huge stone house and all his children were well educated. Two of them had attained university education while three had tertiary level education and had good jobs. This apparent huge success by Mbago was in contrast to the life situations of his stepbrothers.
Mbago’s father had three wives and none of the sons and daughters from his two other families were as successful. Apart from the parcels of land that they inherited from their father, they did not own anything else and their children had not schooled as well as those of Mbago. According to Mbago, his stepbrothers had failed to work hard and resorted to imbibing in local brew and even sold part of their inheritance and squandered the proceeds from the sale on local brew.
Everything appeared to be progressing well for Mbago until two years prior to my encounter with him at MBs. Mbago explained that he decided to visit MB after he experienced a continuous series of misfortunes. In the past two years, he had severally sort police help in confronting thugs who came to his compound apparently to rob or harm him. At the same time, he was involved in bitter altercations with his stepbrothers who complained that he received a disproportionate share of inheritance from their deceased father. His stepbrothers further argued that since he had been able to acquire other parcels of land, it was only fair that he relinquished his own piece of inheritance to them. Within the same duration, Mbago encountered items of sorcery in his inherited farm. They included dead chicken, a huge dissected gecko and several charms. Such items indicated to him that someone was up to harming him through witchcraft. His maize crop was no longer doing well; his tractor had broken down and due to his diminished earnings from his maize crop, was unable to repair it. He could no longer afford fuel for his pick up track. Once in a while, he came with the
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pickup track to MB’s place but on several other occasions he opted for public transport because he could not afford fuel for his track. He also complained of persistent headaches and dizziness.
In my discussion with MB and Mr. Mbago, I realized that they had known each other for a long time even before Mbago sort MB’s help. Apart from his ritual healing, MB too was a prominent maize farmer and he knew Mbago as a farmer. Even with this background, MB subjected Mbago to the entire set of the introductory ritual procedures: the initial discussion and tentative diagnosis, church ceremonies, registration by the secretary etc. The only advantages he seemed to have over other clients was that he often had extended discussions with MB, could easily get an appointment directly with MB while the others booked through the secretary, and on one occasion, the X-ray session was delayed as the congregation waited for him to arrive. Besides, MB appeared to have a better understanding of his tribulations as he was his farming colleague.
In MB’s initial diagnosis, he divined that Mbago’s problems stemmed from his stepbrothers who had not only cast spells on his fortunes but to those of his own children. The healing processes would therefore involve not only disabling his stepbrothers and punishing the witches they had consulted but also examining the problems within the lives of his own children with a view to solving them. To identify the actual issues to be handled, MB directed Mbago to the X-ray process where all aspects of his case would be laid bare and specific ameliorative strategies agreed upon for each of the problems. As with many such cases, the mention stage for Mr. Mbago in MB’s X-rays process identified the people responsible for his problems with a detailed narration of what they had done. There were two basic angles to Mbago’s problems all attributed to nefarious actions from his stepbrothers and stepmother. There was on one side, a plan to rob and murder him using hired thugs and a plan to use occult powers to liquidate him and his children on the other.
Both acts were planned and executed by members of his stepfamily.
Regarding the plans to rob and kill him, the X-ray sessions produced VFBs of a group of eight people who claimed to have been hired to kill Mr. Mbago. Eight VFBs appeared and made their confessions. The first seven VFBs only mentioned their names with some claiming to be from Uganda and kept quiet. The eighth one mentioned his name and offered a long explanation on behalf of the 7 other VFBs who had only mentioned their names
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before his turn. The VFB explained that they were a group of eight members belonging to a hit squad that was often hired to commit murders in Kenya and Uganda. In the case of Mr.
Mbago, he explained that they had been hired by a brother to Mr. Mbago to eliminate him because he had grabbed their share of inheritance. In what had now become typical of such cases, the VFB explained that they were only acting on instructions from Mbago’s brothers and that Mbago was the one who knew exactly why his brothers wanted him dead. They however reiterated that they would eventually kill him because they had already been paid for the job and since they were ‘professionals’, they always executed their clients’ wishes once they had been paid. As a sign of their professionalism, the VFB stated that he would not reveal the identity of the people (Mbago’s brothers) who hired them, only preferring to say that they were Mbago’s brothers. The VFBs though did not make the distinction between actual and stepbrothers. I reproduce sections of their confessions below.
The transcript.
1st VFB: My name is Jim Kabula.
SEC: You are accused!
2nd VFB: My name is Ambrose Mani. My name is Ambrose Mani.
SEC: You are accused!
3rd VFB: My name is Amayi Peter or Peter wafula. My name is Amayi Peter or Peter Wafula.
SEC: You are accused!
4th VFB: My name is Festus Juma.
5th VFB: I have come, my name is Barry Wangwe. I am from Uganda and my name is Barry Wangwe.
6th VFB: I have also come, my name is Manoa Matata or you could also call me Manoa Maxwell. My popular name though is Manoa Matata. The Christians call me Manoa Maxwell. I am from Uganda.
SEC: Continue or give way to the other one to come.
7th VFB: My name is Obiero Mavuli, my name is Obiero Mavuli, I am from Uganda and I have come to Kenya to come and kill the guy called Mbago John.
CL: (Mbago) Why do you want to kill me?
(Silence)
183 SEC: Continue!
8th VFB: My name is Wambaya David and I am a thug from Uganda. I and my colleagues who just identified themselves are thugs for hire. We are always hired to kill people because we have AK 47 rifles. Some of us are from Uganda but a few are also from Kenya. For now we have been contracted to do some work in Kitale. We have been contracted to do this work in 9 different homesteads. We have been asked to rob and kill the people in these 9 homesteads. We never deal with one case, since we are for hire; we often take contracts from different people and then combine the work for one day. This time round, we wanted to kill the guy called Mbago John. Some of his brothers came to us and asked us to help them kill him. We have taken that contract and have even taken photographs of the other homesteads that we have been hired to attack. We shall attack these 9 homesteads, take monies and then kill them. We shall get into the homestead of Mbago John, kill the dog, kill the guard and also kill him. That is our assignment. We are still planning and are yet to agree on a date where we shall do this. We have been paid for this job but our clients also informed us that we could get more money from John if we wanted. They told us that John had money. They told us that John always kept lots of money in his house and so when we attack him, we should demand money from him. But they have already given us monies to enable us travel from Uganda to come do that job. We often get money from the people who hired us as well as from the person we attack and kill. That is how we work. We cannot tell you the names of the brothers who hired us. We only give their names if things become difficult (means in case they are arrested). But if things are not difficult, we rarely say the names of our customers. We always hide their identity. I want to tell you that we are thugs from Uganda but we conduct our ‘businesses’ both in Kenya and Uganda.
In the transcript above the criminal angle to Mr. Mbago’s predicament was identified by MB’s X-ray as coming from thugs hired by his stepbrothers to kill him. Although the spokesman to the thugs stated that it would be unprofessional to name his clients, Mbago’s stepbrothers claimed to have hired the thugs in the confessions that followed. In MB’s ritual rules and prescriptions, the ultimate judgement for murderers and witches was death by ritual burning. The eight VFBs were therefore produced and made to confess in the subsequent stages of the X-rays session and then ritually set on fire at the end of the third session, the judgment. There was however a radical twist to Mbago’s case at this stage.
While still attending MB’s ritual healing, Mbago reported the incidences to the police and provided a list of suspects that he noted from MB’s X-ray session. Two weeks after the performance of the ‘Judgment’ session, Mbago telephoned MB and informed him that the police had arrested some of the thugs who had confessed during the X-ray session that they planned the raid on his farm. Later, the same day, MB related this incident to a very excited congregation before the beginning of the X-ray session. The congregation was so excited to hear this with some of exclaiming praises to MB and God for a wonderful outcome.
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MB also divined that Mbago was a victim of witchcraft from his step-brothers. This did not surprise Mbago as he was already suspicious that he was under attack through witchcraft when he encountered items that he associated with witchcraft on his farm. MB’s initial divination which was later confirmed through the X-ray session, showed that Mbago’s stepfamily was responsible for the charms that he found in his farm as well as affirming that they were the ones who hired thugs to rob and harm him. This angle to Mbago’s affliction unlike the case for the thugs dragged on for a long time with several sessions performed in an effort to tame Mbago’s stepfamily’s witchcraft. In the X-ray session conducted by MB, five VFBs consistently confessed to have been involved in bewitching him and hiring thugs to steal his property. There was the VFB of his stepmother, three representing his three stepbrothers and one of a witch who agreed to have been approached to harm him through ritual means. All the VFBs explained that they decided to bewitch their stepbrother and his family because he had fleeced them of their rightful share of inheritance. The VFBs confessed to have sent misfortunes to Mbago’s entire family including his children.
Mbago’s stepmother’s VFB was the most eloquent giving details of why they resorted to witchcraft. At some point in the X-ray sessions, she even suggested that Mbago was seducing her. The witchcraft angle to Mbago’s predicament produced fiery and bitter exchanges and counter accusations between Mbago and the secretary on one side and Mbago’s stepfamily on the other. The stepfamily vowed to kill Mbago and his family while Mbago and his children vowed to use MB’s powers to defeat them. In the exchanges that ensued, the stepfamily claimed that Mbago was using a witch (meaning MB) to kill them as can be seen in the sections of the transliterated X-ray sessions below.
The Transcript
1st VFB: I have come my name is Grace Nekesa (initially talks in Lubhukusu language58 then turns to Kiswahili.) Nowadays we do not sleep. We are always walking day and night in search for treatment. When we try to sleep, we get short of breath and almost die in our sleep – all of us. Even Samuel (one of her sons) – when he goes to sleep, he is almost dying in his sleep. Why is this happening to us?
CONGREG: Howl then we shall tell you.
SEC: Howl!
VFB: That is what made us consult witches. Nowadays we are not able to sleep. Anytime we go to sleep, we stop breathing. I have talked to my sons, Samuel, Moses and even to my other son Kassim, and they are all experiencing the same thing. They all have bad dreams.
58 Lubukusu is one of the sub-dialects of the Luyia ethnic group.
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We have realized that John must have performed witchcraft on us this time round. And so we have decided to take all possible measures to ensure we have eliminated him too. As I am talking to you, we have already brought a witch to help us ‘cover’59 Lydia (John’s wife), to ‘cover’ John and all his children, we have sent all manner of misfortunes to them including road accidents so that they may die. None of his children will ever get a good job and succeed in life. We have covered all their marriages, all their daughters will be divorced from their husbands and all their sons will lose their wives. They will never ever be able to marry and settle down in life. We want all of them to come back here and resort to drinking
‘Chang’aa’60 and his daughters to be prostitutes selling Chang’aa. This is because John and his mother conned my husband and obtained all the land while I and my children got nothing. You see, John is my son but from another mother. We were in total, three women married to his father. But john and his mother got more land than any of us. And he has been using his inheritance and monies to grab even more land from us. So we have decided to terrorize him until he either dies or leave’s this land.
SEC: Okay then howl!
VFB: Yes, there is this witch called Nahashon Mshombe, he is the one helping us. What did you guys want then?
CONGREG: You howl!
VFB: You guys want me to howl?
CONGREG: Yes!
VFB: And this boy called John keeps on following me all the time, I am of your father’s age, if you were interested in me, why don’t you just say it? You keep following me every time you want to kill me; you want to kill my children. You see for me I inherited my
2nd VFB: I have come my name is Nahashon Mshombe. I have been bewitching since 1974 and so far I have even acquired a pot of Djinns that I use to bewitch. As of now, I have acquired all paraphernalia that are used for bewitching. I do not have to borrow anything
59 As used here, the expression ‘to cover’ is the same as ’to bewitch’
60 Chang’aa is an illicit local brew
61 Misambwa is the term for spirits in the lubukusu language.
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from anyone. I have Djinns, mangoes, all manner of wild animal parts and bones that I need for bewitching – I have all of them. I even have human parts that I can use. At the moment I am the one who has started assisting the woman called Grace and her son to eliminate the house of Mr. John Mbago. We want to eliminate that house completely. You see of late one of her children (Grace’s children) has also started getting sick and so she asked me to eliminate the entire household John Mbago. However she had asked me to keep the information secret between herself and one of her sons; the one called Samuel. And so I have assisted only the two and the rest do not know about it. So what did you guys want me to do?
CONGREG: You howl!
VFB: You guys want me to howl?
CONGREG: Yes!
VFB: That howling, how do you want me to do it?
VFB: That howling, how do you want me to do it?