Red Magic, Molestation, and Bishop Wanjiru

I had to read this article from the Standard (Nairobi, Kenya) twice to get the full effect: “Chaos in Church as Bishop’s Guards Attack Journalist“. It seems that Margaret Wanjiru, formerly of the Redeemed Gospel Church and presently Bishop of Jesus Is Alive Ministries International, is embroiled in a rather peculiar sex scandal.

Other than a sudden unexplained power blackout at her church — during which she sneaked out of it — her minders molested a photojournalist sparking off mayhem at a press conference she had called to apologise to Kenyans.

The bishop — who is caught in the horns of a love triangle and at the swirling centre of a debate about her dark past practicing witchcraft — is said to have watched the entire attack on Standard photojournalist Ms Rebecca Nduku without twitching a muscle. One of her bodyguards is in custody at Kamukunji Police Station while the other two are said to have melted into thin air. Four journalists recorded statements at the same station.

The tales of witchcraft from her past (which she herself recounts) are quite attention-catching:

She brags how she once bewitched a woman who had attempted to mess up her business: “One woman tried to play poker with my business enterprise, the same woman who had introduced me to Black Magic. I bewitched her and she went bonkers.”

In a lengthy interview, Wanjiru said the woman started roaming the streets in rags, and picking up dirt while eating food remains from dustbins.

[…]

She said the woman had attempted to use Black Magic on her unaware she had graduated into White and Red witchcraft.

Lovely stuff! While searching for a bit more information about Red Magic, I happened across this gem of an article from the September 1, 1952 edition of Time Magazine. It begins:

Black & Red Magic

In the British Crown Colony of Kenya, while 3,000 coal-black tribesmen, huddled in a kraal, watched in awe, a goat was slowly beaten to death and buried alongside a virgin ewe. After that ancient rite, supposedly strong magic against evil, an official representative of the Great White Queen Across the Waters pronounced a solemn curse against the Mau-Mau. The Mau-Mau (rhymes with yoyo) is a native secret society which has lately been worrying the British.

Ah, reportage.