A WITCHDOCTOR of Kabwe in Central Province has been caught in a legal quagmire for allegedly reuniting one of his male clients with his ancestors through a failed attempt to get rid of evil spirits from his body.
In this matter, 41 year old Kaampa Kalumbi is charged with murder.
It is alleged that Kalumbi, between December 8, 2023 and December 10, 2023, murdered James Munachaka.
According to sources, Kalumbi was contracted by Munachaka’s aunt in Lusaka’s Woodlands area to cure her kidney disease.
It is alleged that on December 7 last year, Kalumbi visited his client’s home to administer some herbs and water late in the night.
With a great deal of concern for the witchdoctor’s safety to trek in the quiet ‘mayadi’ streets, the client offered Kalumbi accommodation at her home and asked her two nephews, who among them was the deceased, to spend a night with him in their quarters.
Instead of getting a comfortable night’s sleep ‘ku mayadi,’ Kalumbi threw his client’s nephews into panic, in attempts to allure them into desperately begging for his services when he told them they were demon-possessed.
Kalumbi told the two lads that he needed to exorcise them and get rid of the evil spirits living in their stomachs, like intestinal parasites.
In the process, the herbalist allegedly soaked some tree barks in water, which he later administered to the lads so that they could excrete the evil spirits.
The following day, Kalumbi’s client wondered why his nephews, who are early risers, were nowhere to be seen within the compound, to which she asked her husband to check on them in their quarters.
Upon checking their quarters, their uncle was greeted with a stench of the lads’ puke.
It was established that Kalumbi had allegedly administered a poisonous concoction to the two, which upset their stomach and caused them to have loose bowels and tattooed their stomachs, backs as well as their necks.
The two were rushed to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), were Munachaka was pronounced dead as his condition had deteriorated.
Appearing before principal resident magistrate Irene Wishimanga yesterday, Kalumbi was committed to the High Court for trial after the charge of murder was explained to him.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba March 29, 2024.
