Killer cockrell hops homestead headless in a cleansing ritual
DOUGLAS DINDI
In a bizarre ritual, a Kakamega family whose six-month-old baby collapsed and died on Christmas day after being attacked by a protective hen yesterday sacrificed the bird by chopping off its head and allowing the headless body to hop around the homestead in a cleansing ritual.
Three young men were detailed to trace the hen and her chicks from the nearby cane plantation shortly after the girl Haggai Bushuru was buried.
Found, one of the young shoved the hen shoulder high and in one stroke severed the head from the torso.
Her chicks would also suffer similar death, some being crashed while others were thrown in the raging funeral fire as punishment for allegedly visiting death on the infant.
The young men and elders later converged at the fireplace to roast and feast on the bird.
Yesterday’s sacrifice was a climax of a traumatic Christmas Wednesday when Toboko Bushuru’s family was forced to cancel celebrations to mark Jesus anniversary complete with delicacies and corals turning the festivity into a funeral program replete with dirges’ for his fallen daughter.
The deceased mother Robai Toboko told the People Daily that her daughter who had been healthy and jovial shortly began to cry uncontrollably and to convulse after an incident where one of her hens, attempted to strike her daughter.
“Haggai was seated on my lap when I extended my hand to where the hen was. The hen being protective of her chicks struck back but I repulsed it with my hand before the swoop landed on the baby. The baby started crying and convulsing” she said.
Young Haggai died at the Kenya Assemblies of God church in Shikokhwe area, Mugai/Shirugu ward in Kakamega North sub-county, where she allegedly stopped to receive blessings as she headed for the hospital.
