Four witnesses appeared before Milimani High Court and gave an account of an incident where a woman was burned to death in Machakos County on August 1, 2020 for allegedly practicing witchcraft.
The son to the deceased-Timothy Ngui testified saying the accused persons used to call his mother a witch.
He said the accused persons killed his mother with the main aim of wiping them out completely from the village.
He recalled how the murderers of his mother tied her hands and legs with binding wires and locked her in the house from outside before torching the house burning her beyond recognition.
They had also received death threats which they reported at the Machakos Police station before she was murdered.
Ngui told trial Judge Kanyi Kimondo that the accused persons were bent on eliminating the entire family. On the night his mother was murdered, Ngui said one of the accused persons used a stone before they allegedly burned her. Another attacked his brother and cut him. He was bleeding profusely.
Those charged over the murder of Juliana Mwikali Ngui are Anthony Mbindyo Nyamai, Fredrick Munyuku Musyoki, Wilfred Mutisya Munyao, Fredrick Muasa Munyao, Anthony Mutua Mutiso, Paul Muvengei Zacharia, Fredrick Mutiso Mutua, Benson Mwanzia Munyao, Noah Mutiso Muvengei, Jackson Mutinda John and Felix Musembi Muvengei
The particulars of the offence are that on the 1 August, 2020 at Kathuma Village, Misakwani Sub-location, Mumbuni Location in Machakos Sub-county within Machakos County they jointly murdered Juliana Mwikali Ngui.
Another witness, Daniel Mutua, a teacher at Kyambuko primary school in Machakos told the court that he knew the deceased. He said his sister is married in that homestead. The husband to the sister is one Anthony Mutua, an accused person in the murder trial.
He explained to the court that in April 2020, he left his house for the canteen. On his way he found a group of young men standing and holding a conversation.
“The conversation revolved around a woman who had been found bewitching my homestead and that she had been tied somewhere up,” said Mutua.
