It started with a strange illness. Then came a summons to reverse the health condition. When this failed, what followed was an assault, a desperate fight for survival and eventually, death.

Now, an entire family of six faces the hangman after being convicted of murder and is awaiting mitigation and sentencing.

Kalume Ngonyo Mwavuo, Kadenge Ngala, Abdalla Ponda, Ramma Ngonyo, Simon Kaingu and Mwalimu Karisa were found guilty of killing Kazungu Magogo Mwavuo on July 2, 2024, in Lutsangani Village, Kilifi County.

“The court therefore finds each of the six accused persons guilty of the offence of murder. Each accused person is hereby convicted accordingly,” the court said in a judgment delivered on July 24.

The conviction brings to a grim close a trial over a killing that began with allegations of witchcraft and ended with the death of a family member.

A picture of the Mombasa Law Courts| Pool
Photo credit: Pool

As the court turned to the question of punishment, the six convicts were invited to present their mitigation before sentence is determined.

The High Court in Mombasa noted that the offence resulted in the loss of human life and arose from a deliberate act of violence against a family member.

In determining the appropriate sentence, the court said it would consider all relevant circumstances, including the gravity of the offence, the circumstances of the offenders, the mitigation presented and the objectives of sentencing.

The court also ordered the preparation of pre-sentence reports and a victim impact statement to assist it in determining the appropriate sentence.

“All the accused persons shall remain in custody pending mitigation and sentencing,” the court said, cancelling the bond previously granted to the six convicts.

For a family whose suspicion began with an unexplained illness, the case has ended in a devastating reckoning: six relatives convicted of killing one of their own and now waiting to learn their fate.

The deceased was the first-born son in the family, while Mwavuo and Ngala were his younger brothers. Ponda and Ramma were sons of Mwavuo, while Kaingu and Karisa were nephews within the same extended family.

They lived in the same compound and knew one another well, making the events that unfolded that evening all the more disturbing.

Death of a son

The trouble began on the evening of July 2, 2024, when Nassir Mumba Hoto, a son of Mwavuo, fell ill, setting off a chain of events that would ultimately lead to his uncle’s death.

According to evidence presented before the High Court, Nassir’s condition was considered unusual and had already fuelled suspicion that Kazungu was responsible through alleged supernatural means.

What followed was not a confrontation between strangers, but one among relatives who shared a home, family history and bloodline.

The court record shows that all six accused persons were at the family homestead as concern over Nassir’s condition grew. Discussions followed on what should be done, and the family eventually agreed that Kazungu should be summoned.

The accused persons gave differing explanations for why he was called. Some said they wanted him to help with Nassir’s condition, while others indicated that he was suspected of being responsible for the illness.

Behind those varying accounts, however, the court found an underlying suspicion that Kazungu was practising witchcraft and had caused Nassir’s condition.

He was summoned from his house and taken to Mwavuo’s homestead, where the ailing Nassir was.

It was there that the confrontation unfolded.

According to the prosecution evidence, Kazungu was required to perform certain acts intended to remove the alleged affliction from Nassir.

But when the intervention failed to produce the desired result, the atmosphere changed. What had begun as an attempt to deal with an illness descended into violence.

Kazungu was assaulted and managed to flee to a neighbour’s house, apparently seeking safety. But the pursuit did not end there. His attackers followed him and continued the assault.

He later succumbed to the injuries sustained during the attack.

The prosecution case was built around the accounts of the deceased’s children, an independent neighbour and a pathologist, whose evidence the court found materially corroborative.

The deceased’s daughter testified that several of the accused persons went to their home at about 3pm and told her father that his brother was sick and needed his assistance.

She watched him leave with them for the homestead where Nassir was staying.

There, she said, Ponda attacked her father with a jembe while another person held him.

“My father escaped, but his attackers followed him. I saw the accused persons during the subsequent events,” she told the court.

Her younger brother corroborated her evidence, adding that Mwavuo carried a stick and that both Mwavuo and Ponda took part in the assault.

The medical evidence provided a grim account of what the attack had done to Kazungu’s body.

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Dr Ruth Nyangi produced the post-mortem report, which recorded multiple lacerations to the head, bruises, abrasions and other injuries consistent with an assault.

Internally, Kazungu had suffered a skull fracture, a subdural haematoma and brain injuries.

The pathologist concluded that he died from a head injury caused by blunt-force trauma. Her evidence was not materially challenged.

An important independent account came from Karisa Kazungu, a neighbour who was awakened by noise on the night of the attack.

Looking through his window, he said he saw Mwavuo and Ngala assaulting Kazungu with objects.

“I specifically saw Mwavuo strike the deceased on the back of the head and Ngala also assault him,” he said, adding that the attack prompted him to raise the alarm.

The area chief, Jackson Tawa, provided background on tensions within the family, including an earlier cattle theft dispute and an incident in which Kazungu had allegedly stabbed Ngala.

But the chief was not present during the killing, and the court treated his evidence only as context, rather than proof of participation.

Taken together, the witnesses painted a picture of a violent attack witnessed first by Kazungu’s children and later corroborated, in crucial respects, by an independent neighbour and medical evidence.

The six accused persons denied taking part in the killing, but their individual accounts placed them at the centre of events that night, offering the court different versions of what happened after Kazungu arrived at the homestead.

Mwavuo admitted being at the homestead and confirmed that his son Nassir was unwell. He acknowledged that discussions took place and that Kazungu arrived, leading to an argument involving family members.

He, however, denied taking part in the killing, saying he went inside the house and did not see what happened afterwards.

Ngala similarly denied involvement. He told the court that he heard noise from outside but only emerged after the situation had escalated, insisting that he did not participate in the assault.

Ponda admitted that Kazungu had been summoned because of Nassir’s illness. He said Kazungu spoke to Nassir before they sought the intervention of elders. He denied witnessing the assault or knowing who killed his uncle.

Ramma offered a more revealing account of the events preceding the violence. He said Nassir was unwell and that the family summoned Kazungu, who was subjected to repeated attempts to cleanse or reverse the alleged affliction.

According to him, the elders were dissatisfied with the outcome. He nevertheless denied participating in the killing, saying his involvement was limited to taking Kazungu into the house.

Kaingu said he was drawn to the scene after hearing noise from the compound. He found elders discussing Nassir’s illness but later returned to his house. He denied assaulting Kazungu.

During cross-examination, however, he acknowledged that he was in the same compound, knew the deceased and was aware of what was unfolding around Nassir’s illness.

Karisa also denied any involvement in the killing. He did not dispute being related to the other accused persons or being within the family compound when the events unfolded.

Although their accounts differed in detail, the accused persons largely agreed on one crucial point: Kazungu had been summoned to the homestead because of Nassir’s unexplained condition.

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Their disagreement with the prosecution centred not on his presence, but on what happened after he arrived and, ultimately, who was responsible for the violence that ended his life.

The court ultimately found that the evidence formed an unbroken chain leading from the family’s response to Nassir’s illness to Kazungu’s death.

It held that the accused persons were together at the homestead, participated in the decision to summon Kazungu and were present when he was subjected to attempts to remedy the alleged affliction.

“When those attempts failed, the situation turned violent, with Kazungu assaulted and pursued after he escaped,” the court said, adding that the prosecution evidence established that his death resulted from blunt-force injuries inflicted during the attack.

The court rejected the suggestion that the accused were merely passive observers, noting that their own defences placed them at the scene and confirmed their knowledge of the events.

It concluded that the six acted jointly with a common intention and that malice aforethought was established by the nature and severity of the injuries inflicted.

The prosecution had therefore proved the murder case beyond reasonable doubt.

The six convicts will remain in custody pending mitigation and sentencing, with the next stage of the case scheduled for September 30.

For a family that gathered around an illness they believed had a supernatural cause, the journey has ended in a courtroom, with one family member dead, six relatives convicted of his murder and a sentence now hanging over them.

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bocharo@ke.nationmedia.com