Case file · Witch trials
The Kisii witch burnings
Over two days in May 2008 a mob in Kisii, western Kenya, killed eleven people accused of witchcraft, eight women and three men, most of them in their seventies to nineties, and burned their homes.
2008 CE · -0.68, 34.77 · status: official
The account
The killings, in and around the village of Nyakeo, followed a list of alleged witches. Police arrested more than 100 suspects. Human-rights groups and HelpAge pointed out that the accused were almost always old, poor and often widowed, and that land disputes lay behind many accusations; such killings continued in Kisii in following years.
The sceptical view
No evidence of harmful magic is needed to explain the deaths; this is a case about accusation and violence.