‘Strengthen laws on witchcraft’

There is need for government to strengthen laws on witchcraft to deter people from taking the law in their own hands in areas where the scourge is rife, Shiwang’andu District Commissioner Evelyn Kangwa has said.

Ms Kangwa told the Daily Nation that cases of elderly people being murdered on suspicion of practising witchcraft have become rampart in Shiwang’andu and other rural areas in the province because of inadequate laws to address the vice.

She said people opted to take the law into their own hands by killing suspected witches and wizards because the Witchcraft Act did not offer solutions that would reduce the alleged witchcraft practices.

Ms Kangwa said people should, however, not take advantage of the weakness of witchcraft laws take the law into their own hands.

‘‘As much as there are inadequacies with laws to do with witchcraft in our country, people should not take advantage of that to take the law in to their own hands like what we have been witnessing in Shiwang’andu where people are brutally murdered like what happened on Sunday,’’ she said.

Ms Kangwa said cases of mob justice in the area have been on the rise because of increasing cases of alleged witchcraft practices in the area.

Ms Kangwa also called for concerted efforts from the traditional leadership, the church and community organisations to educate people on the need to avoid taking the law in their hands.

Cases of elderly people being murdered on suspicion of practising witchcraft have become rampart