Sorcery violence report alarming

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A REPORT says 12 people are killed and 14 injured on average per month because of sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV).
Charles Abel, the chairman of the special parliamentary committee on gender-based violence said SARV was a growing problem.
He said the report by researchers estimated that from 2000 to 2020, there were more than 6,000 SARV cases resulting in around 3,000 deaths.
“The research suggested that 12 people are killed and 14 suffer serious harm as a result of SARV every month,” Abel said.
He called the violence “shocking” and urged the Government to properly fund and implement the SARV national action plan.
“Our committee also wants the police to do more to investigate and lay charges on SARV cases,” Abel said.
He also called on the Department of Justice and Attorney-General to assess if the laws related to glasmen and glasmeri (fortune tellers) were effective.
“Everyone involved in committing SARV must be punished,” Abel said. The committee also wants the Treasury Department to “urgently allocate more funding to support the implementation of the national gender-based violence strategy”.
He said the GBV strategy had proposed a budget of about K57million over 10 years in 2016.
“We are aware that the Department for Community Development and Religion responsible for driving the strategy since 2016 has not produced strong budget documents,” Abel said.
“This is disappointing.”
He noted however that last month the department made a proposal for funding from the Government’s public investment fund asking for K37 million over five years.
“We urge the Treasurer and the National Executive Council to give this proposal serious consideration,” he said.

One thought on “Sorcery violence report alarming

  • That’s good the government is aware of this issue; the problem is they’ve always been aware of this and have done nothing to appropriate a budget towards implementing the Sorcery National Action Plan (SNAP). So it’s high time they put their money where their mouth is.

    Furthermore, there are already existing numerous Civil Society Organisations that have formed coalitions and partnerships in tackling this issue; partnering with them and garnering their support would contribute immensely to this cause.

    These are our people who have let fear dictate their actions in contributing the most atrocious of acts, and it will be our hands that will bring a proper resolution to this.

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