Rituals, concoctions and drugs
Causes of Kavango’s soaring senseless killings
Week after week, strange deaths - some caused by supposed healers - rock the two Kavango regions.
According to a Rundu-based prosecutor, the strangest reason why a suspect committed murder was because they had a vision in which the victims appeared and allegedly bewitched him.
This is just one of the many motivations that have led to senseless killings in the Kavango regions over years.
A Namibian Sun probe uncovered that majority of the killings committed in these regions are a result of suspects being under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Jealousy, revenge, lack of emotional intelligence, seeking assistance from so-called traditional healers and killing for body parts are among the factors topping the list as to why lives are cut short in Kavango East and Kavango West.
Many lifeless bodies have been found floating in the Kavango River with missing parts. Violent deaths also occur in homes, many fuelled by excessive alcohol consumption.
There have been increasing incidents of residents dying after consuming concoctions served by supposed traditional healers and fake prophets.
Senseless murders
Castro Domingo, who is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence, in 2018 confessed that he strangled his girlfriend to death at Mukwe and transported her body 200 kilometres to Rundu where he secretly buried it in a shallow grave.
He committed the crime because the victim ended the relationship.
In the same year, 20-year-old Jesaya Gabriel Chuhunda murdered five of his family members at Ndama location in Rundu. The victims included his grandmother, mother and three nephews, whom he murdered with a stick.
It was later alleged that he was a drug addict and he was declared unfit to stand trial.
In June 2020, 23-year-old Kandjimi Katjotjo Haingura was arrested after he allegedly kicked his mother to death at Gcigco village in Kavango West.
It is alleged that Haingura, who was apparently under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, kicked and stomped on his mother while wearing heavy construction boots.
Early last year, two self-proclaimed pastors and their customary wives from Kavango West were arrested after they administered a toxic concoction to their victims’ rectums, a situation that led to three deaths.
On 12 October last year, 21-year-old Matende Ndjiunga from Diyogha village killed his 57-year-old mother with a pounding stick.
In April this year, 25-year-old Jacob Sikerete Sadwere murdered his mother at Ekuli village in Kavango West after he hit her countless times with a hoe.
According to his traditional wife, who witnessed the murder, Sadwere was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
In the same week, an 18-year-old man allegedly murdered his father (37) by assaulting him with a stick at Sinono village in Kavango West.
The latest incident involved 45-year-old self-proclaimed traditional healer from Kandjara village in the Ndiyona constituency, who earlier this month was arrested after a concoction - which he claimed would cleanse people of bad luck and evil spirits - killed two of his clients.
Disregard for life
While some argue that these senseless killings are a result of people in the Kavango regions having no regard for human life, Kavango East crime coordinator, deputy commissioner Bonifatius Kanyetu, believes otherwise.
He said the driving forces towards these murders are alcohol abuse, drugs, ignorance of one’s mental illness, jealousy and revenge as well as a lack of control over one’s anger.
“For one to say people have no regard for human life, that is not true because those murders are motivated by certain factors,” he said.
“For example, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, there are facilities [where] you can be rehabilitated, but our society is ignorant.”
Kanyetu added that society should partly be blamed because there are people in the community who need assistance as they are faced with challenges such as mental illness, but they are left to their own devices without being offered the necessary help.
Puzzling reason
A prosecutor at the Rundu Magistrate’s Court, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, narrated: “The weirdest reason I heard in my career was that of a suspect who had a dream about family members bewitching him and soon thereafter he went and murdered them.
“It still puzzles me to date.”
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This is just one of the many motivations that have led to senseless killings in the Kavango regions over years.
A Namibian Sun probe uncovered that majority of the killings committed in these regions are a result of suspects being under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Jealousy, revenge, lack of emotional intelligence, seeking assistance from so-called traditional healers and killing for body parts are among the factors topping the list as to why lives are cut short in Kavango East and Kavango West.
Many lifeless bodies have been found floating in the Kavango River with missing parts. Violent deaths also occur in homes, many fuelled by excessive alcohol consumption.
There have been increasing incidents of residents dying after consuming concoctions served by supposed traditional healers and fake prophets.
Senseless murders
Castro Domingo, who is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence, in 2018 confessed that he strangled his girlfriend to death at Mukwe and transported her body 200 kilometres to Rundu where he secretly buried it in a shallow grave.
He committed the crime because the victim ended the relationship.
In the same year, 20-year-old Jesaya Gabriel Chuhunda murdered five of his family members at Ndama location in Rundu. The victims included his grandmother, mother and three nephews, whom he murdered with a stick.
It was later alleged that he was a drug addict and he was declared unfit to stand trial.
In June 2020, 23-year-old Kandjimi Katjotjo Haingura was arrested after he allegedly kicked his mother to death at Gcigco village in Kavango West.
It is alleged that Haingura, who was apparently under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, kicked and stomped on his mother while wearing heavy construction boots.
Early last year, two self-proclaimed pastors and their customary wives from Kavango West were arrested after they administered a toxic concoction to their victims’ rectums, a situation that led to three deaths.
On 12 October last year, 21-year-old Matende Ndjiunga from Diyogha village killed his 57-year-old mother with a pounding stick.
In April this year, 25-year-old Jacob Sikerete Sadwere murdered his mother at Ekuli village in Kavango West after he hit her countless times with a hoe.
According to his traditional wife, who witnessed the murder, Sadwere was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
In the same week, an 18-year-old man allegedly murdered his father (37) by assaulting him with a stick at Sinono village in Kavango West.
The latest incident involved 45-year-old self-proclaimed traditional healer from Kandjara village in the Ndiyona constituency, who earlier this month was arrested after a concoction - which he claimed would cleanse people of bad luck and evil spirits - killed two of his clients.
Disregard for life
While some argue that these senseless killings are a result of people in the Kavango regions having no regard for human life, Kavango East crime coordinator, deputy commissioner Bonifatius Kanyetu, believes otherwise.
He said the driving forces towards these murders are alcohol abuse, drugs, ignorance of one’s mental illness, jealousy and revenge as well as a lack of control over one’s anger.
“For one to say people have no regard for human life, that is not true because those murders are motivated by certain factors,” he said.
“For example, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, there are facilities [where] you can be rehabilitated, but our society is ignorant.”
Kanyetu added that society should partly be blamed because there are people in the community who need assistance as they are faced with challenges such as mental illness, but they are left to their own devices without being offered the necessary help.
Puzzling reason
A prosecutor at the Rundu Magistrate’s Court, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, narrated: “The weirdest reason I heard in my career was that of a suspect who had a dream about family members bewitching him and soon thereafter he went and murdered them.
“It still puzzles me to date.”
[email protected]
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