‘I JUST WANT TO SEE HER BONES, HER SKELETON’
When her daughter died, Memory Mukanairi was not told about the tragedy or how she was buried. She has been fighting to lift the lid on the dark arts at Madzibaba Ishmael’s shrine. Yesterday, she was back at the compound for a scheduled exhumation of the body of her daughter. She told H-Metro. . . A SCHEDULED exhumation of the body of the dead woman, whose case lifted the lid on Madzibaba Ishmael’s cult and led to his arrest, was not conducted as planned in Nyabira yesterday.
Relatives of deceased woman, who died last year in November at the shrine and was buried without their knowledge, were at the compound yesterday ahead of a planned exhumation of her body.
Madzibaba Ishmael was arrested in a pre-dawn raid by police on Tuesday.
Memory Mukanairi, the mother of the late woman, said she just wants to see the remains of her daughter irrespective of the stage of decomposition.
Her daughter was 27 when she died.
Mukanairi was married to Madzibaba Gideon, who is one of Madzibaba Ishmael’s closest advisers.
Madzibaba Gideon was arrested together with Madzibaba Ishmael on Tuesday.
Mukanairi said:
“We were not informed of her death and just heard about the issue through neighbours.
“We then went to the farm, where we were advised to seek protection, since they are reported to be violent.
“The place is called Canaan and whatever they work for goes to the leader, Ishmael, all the proceeds go to him.
“My daughter died and was buried by four men who are not even related to her.”
“We want to see our child exhumed, we were not given the chance to mourn our child because of this indoctrination.”
She added:
“When I was still with my husband in Nyabira, I was the one who used to help my children to get birth certificates because we were not allowed to go to hospitals or clinics.
“So, it is really painful to me that my child died during child birth because now I am thinking that, maybe, if I had been there she was not going to go through that and I was going to help her.
‘Right now, all that I want is to see the body, or bones, of my child, maybe, I will get closure.”
She said the pain has been unbearable.
“When we went to see where she is buried, I was hurt because it does not appear as if a grown person can fit into that shallow grave that I saw.
“We came here today with the hope that she will be exhumed and the necessary tests are done but it seems like we will have to wait sezvo nhasi pasima zvazoitika.”
Mukanairi said what forced her to escape from Madzibaba Ishmael’s cult was when she was accused of causing the death of one of her step children.
“When my husband married another wife, they had a child and that child got sick but, unfortunately, I was accused of the death of that child even though I took that child as my own.
“I was really hurt by that,” she said.
Madzibaba Gideon’s brother said they have not heard from him since he joined Madzibaba Ishmael’s church.
“We are here today because we want to go with our child, she died and was buried without our knowledge,” he said.
“Chitendero cherudzii chinoti vanhu hama dzemunhu hadzicheme mumwe wavo?
“We hope that our child will be exhumed and we get the closure that we are looking for, we are hurting as a family.”
However, Madzibaba Gideon has denied claims by his ex-wife that their daughter was buried the same day she died last year.
Madzibaba Gideon, whose real name is Sibiniyo Chikurunhe, told H-Metro that his ex-wife was just a bitter woman.
He said that their daughter died due to food poisoning and was buried in a proper manner.
He accused Memory of trying to tarnish his reputation, and that of their church, by making false accusations.