(Pkemoi Ng’enoh)

Incidents of devil worship are on the rise in Kenya, with members of the occult claiming that the recent cases of road accidents are their latest acts aimed at harvesting blood. In one of the confessions aired by a local radio station, a confessed devil worshipper claimed she was being taken to the mortuary when she rose from the dead. The woman who arose from the dead had been taken to Mama Lucy Hospital where doctors confirmed she had died. She reportedly resurrectedalong the way as her mother was taking her to Kenyatta University Funeral Home. While I was presumed to be dead, I was at a location below the sea, where I saw several accidents taking place, she claims. Last year, on the Naivasha-Nakuru road, students from Kajembe High School in Mombasa collapsed after they were allegedly attacked by evil spirits.

The students were on their way back to school after taking part in the national music festivals. In June 2010, suspected serial killer Philip Onyancha claimed he had been inducted into devil worshipping while still a student at Kenyatta Mahiga High School in Nyeri.

In June, a parent of a standard eight pupil at a private school in Embu asked the Ministry of Education to intervene after her son was allegedly dismissed from the school over allegations of worshipping the devil. In August 2011, at least 50 students from Moi Girls High School Kamusinga were sent home for allegedly practising lesbianism and devil worship. One student confessed to having woken up with marks all over her body and a tattoo of a head of a snake. Another devil worshipper used a divider from her geometric set and wrote the word ˜dragon” on her breasts.

She said her right hand side was known as ˜Felista” and left side, which belonged to the devil, is ˜Eminel’s”. According to the confessions, the first step to being a devil worshipper entails becoming a member. Thereafter, one progresses to becoming a prince or princes, and then a priest. Priests have supernatural powers such as the ability to enter a matatu and disappearing. Devil worship priests are said to possess a third eye that enables them to see things that are supernatural, like someone’s future or details of one’s bank account. Devil worshippers use dolls, metal music, tattoos and push pins. Women are also given an owl or rat jewellery that is placed on top of breasts to tempt men. In 1999, a presidential commission of inquiry concluded that devil worship was commonplace in Kenya with a high presence in schools, churches and even government offices. According to the report, devil worshippers were obsessed with sex, especially lesbianism.

The Devil Worship Commission was established in October 20, 1994 and interviewed various organizations including the Freemason Society and the Mormons. Critics roundly derided the commission’s findings and disparaged the damning report.

Devil worship is not a crime in Kenya. “Satanism is not forbidden by any law”, the chairman of the commission, Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima, said when he released the findings of the report which have never been made public. The Devil Worship Commission recommended the establishment of a special police force to investigate crimes of the occult said to practice ritual murder, human sacrifice, cannibalism and magic. I have no information why the special police force was not formed, the police spokesperson Zipporah Gatiria Mboroki told The Nairobian.

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*Originally published on Standard Media on Sept. 12, 2014