A wave of lawlessness that has gripped Murang'a County over the past two years targeting elderly women has now occasioned many families relocating their elderly matriarchs from the villages.

There is an escalation of lynch mobs that freely roam the area villages executing gory murders against those they perceive to be witches.

This as sex pests, murderers as well as livestock and crop thieves have escalated the fears.

In 2023, the then Murang'a County Commissioner Mr Karuku Ngumo had ordered the gangs be cracked down terming them as "stupid agents of archaic mindsets to settle societal scores through crime of murder but hiding under shady excuses like culture and community policing".

But no county action plan was announced, the gangs continuing to do their thing and constantly sending families to grief, many evacuating their elderly women to keep them safe outside the interiors of the county.

Three bodies--Murang'a Human Rights Watch, Murang'a Evangelical Alliance and Murang'a Elderlies' Safety Lobby group--have since jointly issued a statement urging area security heads to tame the rising menace of blatant disregard to sanctity of life.

They argue that Murang'a is slowly sinking into deliberate terrorism against the elderly.

“Jungle law that has gained traction in our society has it that getting old is a crime punishable by death as our security agents appear to be silent cheerleaders owing to their inaction,” the joint statement reads.

They now want area security leadership to publicly declare the lynch mobs as a county disaster to be fought by equal force.

"We are alarmed that on daily basis we are receiving reports of threats to life and on weekly basis hitting media headlines over gory murders progressed by lynch mobs," reads their statement.

The bodies cite the case of Ms Sasida Njeri,75, who they pooled resources to relocate from her Muchungucha village in Kiharu constituency after she was threatened with death.

Ms Njeri's son, Martin Kamau,46, had been murdered by a village gang of 11 on June 13, 2024, and issued murder notice against her and six grandchildren.

Ms Njeri on August 22, 2024, lamented that she now lives in a rental house away from her home.

"I got married in that village when I was 19 and I have been displaced by the age mates of my great grandchildren who accuse me of being a witch and a mother to thieves. Despite recording police statements where I have named the gang members, nothing happened and I had to be evacuated," Ms Njeri said.

Ms Njeri said she would have braved the gang and wait to be murdered but her grandchildren aged between 14 and six(6) years made her accept to move to a rental house.

Murang'a County Commissioner Joshua Nkanatha is yet to make a public statement regarding the gangs and efforts to interest him to comment on the issue bore no results.

A senior security officer in Murang'a East Sub-County revealed to AVDelta News that the wave of the lynch mobs is so strong that a senior elected politician had to evacuate his elderly mother to Nairobi after intelligence bared a plot to lynch her.

"We had to coordinate her evacuation to Nairobi on the midnight of July 26, 2024, after it was reported the gang intended to visit her home on June 28, 2024, and lynch her on grounds that she was a witch," the officer said.

The lynch mobs have been growing bolder by the day, resulting to the July 10, 2024, raid on Gachocho Police Station where a murder suspect was plucked from inside the cells and lynched as officers took to their heels.

A similar attack was to be staged last Sunday at Karung'e Police Patrol Base and the Chief's Camp in search of a murder suspect.

The mobs left the two facilities destroyed.

So far, Kigumo police boss Mr Kiprono Tanui says sleuths are yet to arrest any suspect despite numerous audio and visual evidence presented to them regarding the raid.

"We are yet to arrest anyone despite the fact that we suffered injuries and our police patrol vehicle damaged. The incident is still under investigations," Mr Tanui said.

He described the lynch mob as "aggressive, daring and tricky in the way it operates" adding that his area has witnessed more than 10 lynchings in the past one year.

In Kiharu Constituency where the gang is more pronounced, it is recorded to have murdered 16 in the past one year.

More touching was the February 20, 2024, lynching of Jane Wambui,85, and Mary Njoki,75.

The two were forcefully removed from their homes, frog marched to a public road where after being beaten senseless, they were set ablaze.

The witness against them was a teenage girl who claimed that she had a day earlier found them naked on a village path as she was going to school at 6:30am executing acts of witchcraft.

In her statement, the teenager claimed that she overheard the two discussing how they would bewitch residents of Kiamikoe village. 

Njoki's widower, Mr Mwangi Kibaara, said the traumatising incident that was executed as he watched left the whole village in shock.

"The incident saw more than 10 families that I know evacuate their elderly matriarchs from the village for fear of them getting murdered," he told AVDelta News.

Despite the February declaration by the Interior CS Kithure Kindiki when he spoke while during the launch of the office of the Assistant Commissioner at Mwanamwinga, where he strongly condemned the killing of elderly people on suspicion of witchcraft, no action plan has been seen to have been mooted.

Prof Kindiki said rising cases of murders against the elderly was a matters of security threat and must be stopped.

He added that no citizen should be in danger because of his age, thus warning those responsible for the murders that they must be found and legal action taken against them.

“We must protect our elders. We are going to crack down on criminals who are terrorizing our older people and sometimes bringing cultural reasons which are not valid to murder our senior citizens. They must live in peace and the government will not compromise their safety for any excuse whatsoever,"  Prof Kindiki said.

The worst incident had been reported on April 10, 2023, when 60 year old Mary Wangui and her three(3) daughters Cecilia Gathoni 30, Lucy Mumbi 20, Margaret Wanja 15 and two grandchildren Jackline Wambui 7, and Alvine Kiarie 3 were burnt alive inside her house in Nguthuru village, Kandara Constituency.

On October 21, 2023, at Kirogo village, the body of Jane Wanjiru,70, was retrieved from her house burnt to death.

Her son Peter Horohio said "all investigations that were promised by the police never gave us a suspect even when word in the neighbourhood pointed to a lynch gang that hides under the guise of cultural purism.

On September 17, 2023, Agnes Muthoni was murdered in her home compound in Murang'a South Sub-County by use of a petrol bomb. 

According to area Deputy County Commissioner Gitonga Murungi, the assailants are yet to be identified and neither the motive has ever been ascertained.

On September 28, 2023, Grace Wanjiku,84, was retrieved from her house in Kirimiga village in Mathioya Sub-County burnt beyond recognition in an incident detectives have since ruled as murder.

Wanjiku was sleeping when her house was attacked by use of petrol bombs and she died while struggling to unlatch the main door to escape the flames.

Ms Jane Wanjiku,75, who escaped such an attempted murder in 2023 says she now lives in Murang'a town as a tenant after her children evacuated her.