Kakamega: Guest Visiting Elderly Couple Killed Alongside Hosts Over Witchcraft Claims

• Two families in Lugari of the larger Kakamega county are grieving following the deaths of their kin
• Arnold Ambuchi and his wife Seraphine Muloki were beaten to death alongside their guest, Ayub Lusweti, who was lynched by the Duka Moja villagers
• The trio's wrongdoing, according to the locals, was their alleged involvement in witchcraft and were accused of using the craft to occasion some mysterious deaths in the area

Eli Odaga, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings over three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.

Three people locking themselves in a house in the Lugari sub-county were killed on the assumption they were undertaking sorcery activities.

The trio of elderly people were busted inside a house by the residents of Duka Moja village.

Nation.africa reports that 59-year-old Arnold Ambuchi and his wife Seraphine Muloki, 54, had hosted a friend whom the neighbours suspected was around for witchcraft.

Elderly couple killed

The guest has been identified as Ayub Lusweti, a 60-year-old man from the neighbouring Matete village.

Upon busting the trio, the villagers descended on the couple whom they beat to death and then lynched the guest.

The villagers accused the visiting 60-year-old of occasioning some mysterious deaths in the area.

His family, however, came to his defence, saying he was doing a decent job out of which he has earned an income for many years.

They wondered why the villagers would not hand him to the police if they were convinced he was undertaking an illegal business.

"My brother was killed without any mistake. He was a family man trying to make a living. If his killers thought he was involved in something illegal, they should have arrested him and handed him over to the authorities instead of taking the law into their own hands," Luka Lusweti is quoted as having said by Nation.

To confirm the tragic events was Kakamega County Police Commander Joseph Kigen, who revealed that investigators had already begun their work.

The bodies were ferried to the Kakamega County Referral Hospital mortuary ahead of the postmortem.

In other news beyond borders, a witch doctor and his client, a 59-year-old woman, recently died after ingesting a concoction made of poisonous herbs.

Witchdoctor, client die after taking harmful concoction

The Zambian female client named Edith Chilanda approached the traditional healer, Kapoya Chiyesu, for help with a swollen leg.

As is routine, Chiyesu administered herbs to the woman, who later started vomiting and was rushed to the hospital.

Members of the public descended on the traditional healer and accused him of giving the client poisonous herbs.

According to authorities, the angry family members and residents frogmarched the witch doctor to Kabompo police station.

While still at the police station, the family received information that their kin had passed on before being treated.

Chiyesu also died after consuming "medicine" in a bid to prove that the medicine was not harmful.

The traditional healer was rushed to the Kabompo District hospital but was also pronounced dead upon arrival.

"The now deceased, Edith Chilanda called a traditional healer from Zambezi district by the name of Kapoya Chiyesu to come and heal her of her illness of a swollen leg. The said healer went and administered herbs to the deceased," the police said.