This archive report was first published on 24 August 2020.
On August 19, 2020, a tragic incident occurred in Lundi village, Mwingi East, Kitui County, where 12 boys between the ages of five and eight were assembled for a traditional circumcision ceremony.
The boys were to be circumcised using a razor blade by a 70-year-old woman, who is an experienced traditional circumciser and revered among members of the Kavonokya sect.
The sect, based in parts of Mwingi and Kitui South, is notorious for disregarding conventional medicine and has a history of secretive conclaves for prayers, which often result in the deaths of its members.
During the ceremony, the circumciser moved from one boy to another, casually cutting off the foreskin, while the fathers of the boys pinned them down. The boys were then tossed onto a waiting party that bandaged their private parts with pieces of clothes to stop the bleeding.
However, unlike in hospitals, this callous ritual had no drugs to lessen the pain. Two of the boys, aged five and seven, developed excessive bleeding after being cut and were taken to a secret house where sect members began their ritual prayers.
The sect members continued praying, jumping up and down and clutching firmly onto bibles, as the boys' lives slowly ebbed away. From Wednesday to Friday, the two boys lay on a bed, bleeding endlessly, with no medical intervention except for the prayers.
On Friday, the condition of the two siblings deteriorated, and they died, one after the other. Their father, Mutua Kithuka, revealed that the bleeding never stopped and that the younger one died at 6pm, while the other one died around 10pm.
When asked why they did not take their sons to hospital, Kithuka said, 'It is true we did not take them to hospital because I am saved and according to the scriptures, we are not allowed to go to hospital. If one falls sick, you invite the church elders to pray and the sick is healed by faith.'
Mwingi East police boss Joseph Yakan confirmed that Kithuka was arrested on August 21, 2020, while the traditional circumciser was arrested on August 20, 2020. They are being held at Ukasi Police Station and will be arraigned on August 24, 2020.
Mui chief Paul Musyimi warned the sect members not to circumcise their sons at home, stating that stern action will be taken against those who go against this directive.
The two bodies have been preserved at Mwingi Level IV Hospital mortuary.
