Speaking at the Kenya Investment Authority strategy meeting the Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi blamed the lack of investment on witchcraft killings.

The Commissioner highlighted the problem of the murder of elderly people suspected of practising witchcraft as sending bad signals which scared investors away.

Charities have reported that the killing of elderly people in Kenya is sometimes an economic crime. Families are unable to support their elderly dependants and adopt excuses to facilitate their murder.

According to Munyi more than 900,000 people in the Coast province face starvation despite a flourishing touristic sector.  The Kenyan government has invested in services to de-silt local water supplies but hundreds of thousands still struggle for clean water.

In Pure Spirit

How much of a serious problem is this for Kenya? Do you the Commissioner was blaming the locals and their backwards way for the lack of successful investment in the region?

The Kenyan Standard carries photographs of an alleged witchdoctor, Mr Chengo Dingo, being stripped of his powers.

Kanamai residents in the Kilifi District accused Mr Dingo of destroying marriages and wrecking businesses. In response the locals hired the servers of two ‘senior’ withdoctors; Safari Mohamed and Omar Mohamed to render Dingo powerless.

The witchdoctor was shaved, painted, made to straddle the more senior Mohamed and tehn carried around the village. He was declared free of evil powers.

The stripping of the witchdoctor’s power comes after a spate of witch and witchdoctor incidents in Kenya. Recently in South Africa a Transkei woman was shot and killed after being accused of witchcraft.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think of the ritual used to strip Dingo of his powers? Would it work? Did Mr Dingo ever have any witchdoctor powers in the first place?

Nine women stand accused of witchcraft and face criminal charges in a court in Kenya.

The women from Kiagoro in the Kisii District of Kenya have been accused of intent to harm and witchcraft knowledge. It is claimed that they cast a spell on a local boy, which struck him dumb and forced him to walk from house to house for an entire night in April.

The nine women nearly escaped a lynch mob who set after them seeking just for the 11 year old boy.

The Kenyan magistrate granted each bail at Sh30,000.

The East Standard reports that this case follows a wake of recent attacks in the region where women have been lynched by villages accusing them of witchcraft.

In Pure Spirit

Should we worry that Kenyan villages take witchcraft as seriously as this? What would be worse; trying to impose western cultural values or doing nothing to stop the lynching?