{"id":29441,"date":"2016-10-15T09:01:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T09:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-a-month-after-journalist-s-death-his-father\/"},"modified":"2016-10-15T09:00:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T09:00:48","slug":"kenya-a-month-after-journalist-s-death-his-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-a-month-after-journalist-s-death-his-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:A month after journalist’s death, his father ‘commits suicide’ in strange circumstances"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The father of Standard Group’s Kilifi correspondent Joseph Masha has died, just a month after the journalist collapsed and died in his house.}<\/p>\n

Family members of Mzee Tondo Chiwetse, 72, said the old man committed suicide by hanging himself inside his house at Kolongoni Village in Chasimba, Kilifi County.<\/p>\n

In a tragic turn of events, residents said the old man hanged himself after a known witchdoctor in the area implicated him in his son’s death.<\/p>\n

According to Mzee Chiwetse\u2019s son John Said, the deceased was found dangling on a rope inside his house after the family mounted a search for him when he went missing.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Mr Saidi said Mzee Tondo was living a dejected life in the village, after “he was found guilty” of practicing witchcraft, by an alleged witch buster seven days ago.<\/p>\n

He speculated the weight of the allegations might have led him to taking his own life.<\/p>\n

SON DIED ON SEPT 2<\/p>\n

When Masha collapsed and died in his house in Kilifi Town on September 2, some family members suspected that he could have died as a result of a traditional ritual.<\/p>\n

Others, including his professional colleagues, suspected foul play.<\/p>\n

The ritual, commonly known as Kutoa wa Mvua among the Mijikenda ethnic group, is a practice where a member of the cult sacrifices one of his family member so that rain can come.<\/p>\n

Masha\u2019s employer, the Standard Group, insisted on a post-mortem on his body, which was conducted by five doctors led by Chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor.<\/p>\n

After the autopsy at the Kilifi County Hospital, Dr Oduor announced that the same samples had been sent for further analysis in South Africa on the company’s request.<\/p>\n

On Saturday Kilifi County chief of health Timothy Malingi said the results are not yet out.<\/p>\n

Soon after his death, rumours started doing the rounds in the village that he had been “bewitched”.<\/p>\n

FAMOUS WITCH BUSTER<\/p>\n

That prompted the family to seek the services of a renowned witch buster, commonly referred to as Beba Beba.<\/p>\n

Last week, Mzee Chiwetse was among the eight elders in the village who were “busted” was implicated in his son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter he was caught by Beba Beba, he came to me, looking very miserable. He said he felt ashamed that the entire Kolongoni Village including even children had branded him a wizard. Looking disturbed, he gave me his bank account details and then went missing,” said Mr Saidi.<\/p>\n

“He went missing on Thursday and after a search we found him at 2pm inside his house with a rope on his neck,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Some of the locals claim Mzee Chiwetse could no longer withstand the torment and shame of being called a wizard and the accusation that he killed his own son, Masha.<\/p>\n

Kilifi police boss Alexander Makau confirmed the incident and said investigations have been launched.<\/p>\n

He asked for calm as police look into the circumstances of the death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shall investigate all the claims being levelled over the death,\u201d said Mr Makau.<\/p>\n

An elder who spoke on condition of anonymity said the deceased’s toes had some injuries, which could have been pointed to a struggle and speculation that he may also have been killed by people who wanted it to looked like suicide.<\/p>\n

{{RAMPANT KILLING}}<\/p>\n

Killing of the elderly on witchcraft allegations has been rampant in Kilifi County, with more than 108 elders killed in the region last year, according to County Commissioner Joseph Keter.<\/p>\n

While visiting Kilifi in January this year, Deputy President William Ruto called to end the reckless killing of the elderly in the region.<\/p>\n

\"Journalists<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The father of Standard Group’s Kilifi correspondent Joseph Masha has died, just a month after the journalist collapsed and died in his house.} Family members of Mzee Tondo Chiwetse, 72, said the old man committed suicide by hanging himself inside his house at Kolongoni Village in Chasimba, Kilifi County. In a tragic turn of events, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29441"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29441"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}