COVID-19: Witchdoctors decry loss of clients
As effects of COVID-19 pandemic continue to take toll on populations across the world, the witchdoctors and medicine men fraternity in Matuga, Kwale County has not been left behind.
Through their chair Mwakusema Khamis Tsakapala, the witchdoctors have expressed their fury with the pandemic which they said has continued to disrupt their business.
As a result the witchdoctors have promised to convene an urgent nocturnal meeting bringing together all witchdoctors in the regions, purposefully to discuss the virus and begin strategizing on modalities to end the pandemic.
The visibly agitated Tsakapala said since the first case was reported in the country, clients have stopped paying them a visit, a situation he said has resulted in sharp decline of their daily income.
The chair, a renowned medicine man in Kwale who has carved a niche with specialty in handling foreign clients, says on an ordinary day, he makes a cool Sh 100, 000 or more, but coronavirus has since disrupted everything.
“Kwa hakika tangu kuja kwa hii korona veras, hatupati wateja…biashara zetu zimeshuka sana na hatuna mbinu ya kufanya…Mimi sana sana huwatibu wageni ugonjwa wa mshipa tu hatu juzi nimekuwa nikitibu mteja mmoja na kwa masaa saba napata laki moja na elfu themanini, (For sure since the virus entered the country we haven’t treated a single clien… the business has gone down and we don’t know what to do…For my case I normally treat abdominal muscle problems and in fact the other day I treated clients and in seven hours I get Sh 180,000),” Tsakapala explained.
The chairman observed that with the trend and direction the pandemic has taken, there is a danger of plunging the witch doctors community into dens of poverty.
“We rely on this job to pay school fees for our children and we are afraid that by the time the situation ends, we will be bankrupt and it will be the time for back to school. Where shall we get the funds to pay fees? This is why we have decided to meet and find how to handle this situation,” said Tsakapala.
