Looters Hurriedly Return Stolen Goods In Mombasa Fearing Witchcraft

After posting some pretty grim articles and pictures here over the last few hours, it is only fair that we now try something on a lighter note.

Believe it or not, some Kenyans who had their property looted at Mombasa have had it returned. It is said that looters on hearing that the property owners were going to consult witchdoctors to get their things back, hurriedly fell over themselves in a desperate attempt to return looted property.

According to sources, even Kikuyu entrepreneurs who generally have no interest in visiting witchdoctors took advantage of the fear in the people and started dropping names of a few famous ones at the Coast. The result has always been instantaneous. One owner of a wood furniture workshop in Mwandoni was shocked to see a huge queue of looters returning raw timber and furniture items one morning recently.

But according to some reports not all looters were so lucky. For instance some rowdy youths who raided a bar in the Likoni area landed in hospital soon after. The problem? For some unexplained reasons, they could not pass urine or stool. If this continues for a certain length of time it can be life-threatening.

All the victims believed that they had been caught in some “witchcraft trap” set by the owner of the business where they stole. If you have lived in Mombasa for any length of time you will always hear people saying that businesses are “protected” by some invisible forces.

In another episode some looters who had raided an Arab’s shop selling cloth materials died after suddenly falling sick soon after the incident. Their colleagues who were hospitalized only recovered after their relatives returned the looted property and the owner accepted to forgive them. One regular Kumekucha informer assured this blogger that people who were sick to the point of death recovered instantaneously when so called quick thinking relatives rushed to the owner of the looted property.

Despite the fact that there are many superstitious Kenyans who live in the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western, Mombasa is the only area in the country where a lot of looted property has been voluntarily returned to their rightful owners by looters.