Saturday 20th 2014 will forever be remembered as the day when the Standard Group lowered its standard by telling a lie to the Country. The stunt pulled by KTN to expose how witchcraft is rampant among the Kisii community was scintillating. The expose heartrendingly left people thunderstruck, thanks to a lagniappe deserving reporter Ian Wafula – the Executant.
Across ethnical divide, the story was received with mixed receptions. To the ignorant, the expose attracted acclaim; to the brave – like me – it attracted criticism. To the unlettered, the expose was overwhelming, to the lettered – like me – it underwhelmed.
According to KTN, the Kisii community has the highest number of witches per square kilometer. I want to congratulate KTN for attempting and miserably failing to tarnish the good reputation of omogusii through its perpetrated hoax. Legitimately, a host of Kenyans were truly stirred up by the expose. Sure, me too. But was KTN’s motive limited to the genuineness of responsible journalism?
Standard group is like a capsizing vessel. It is bankrupt of both news and finances. For heaven’s sake, how can they stoop as low as stage-managing witchlike activities without much fear of consequences and cost, and then purport to interview them in the name of news?
Compared to what the Kisii (Israeli) community has gone through since they left Egypt, the fabricated lies by KTN are just but a tip of the iceberg. In fact, the matter has been given far too much importance for nothing because it is of no vital interest. It’s pure common sense that the correspondents were emboldened after realizing that they were bankrupt of stories to submit.
The Kisii community is surrounded by its historical adversaries. Sitting in the middle, it borders the Kalenjin community, the Luo community, the Kuria and the Maasai community among others, at one time, or, just like the Israeli community, its neighbours have unsuccessfully attacked it.
Underneath of all this, I am deeply troubled by the approaching technique applied by Ian Wafula when enticing the wizards into his interview. Before Wafula convinces me that he outrightly demystified the myth of witchcraft in Kisii, I have a barrage of questions for him. However, I’ll ask him just a few.
How come his own were all energetic young men. Didn’t he know that he was selling himself out when he asked them to take off their shirts? Witches are believed to be old people. Why didn’t he het at least two old ladies and interview them; or, could it be that the old lacked the courage to lie with temerity before the cameras, community and God?
The next time Ian wants to stage-manage a hoax in the name of news, he should try elsewhere and not Gusiiland.
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