It is a life of fish, ‘stewed’ sex and witchdoctors in Siaya beaches

 A view of Mageta Island.                     PHOTO/ISAIAH GWENGI.

Drunk fishermen don’t bother with protection. Money is good for lodging owners, but the cost of maintaining broken beds has seen them erecting concrete slabs. Then there are witchdoctors who control fishing and beach elections.

Welcome to Mageta Island,  a former colonial detention camp in Siaya County, where a recent battle of wits between a fisherman and a witchdoctor left a family in shock after their dinner miraculously disappeared as they prayed.

The fisherman had been warned that the house was jinxed, but still moved in.

Another fisherman was allegedly cursed by his regular witchdoctor and his fortunes began dwindling. His boats began capsizing, even leading to the death of some of his crew. Shortly, all his boats disappeared mysteriously. The rental houses he had built were condemned. People began moving out without new tenants.

One fisherman whose fortunes began waning sacrificed two of his fishermen after one of his boats capsized in a process locals call luoko yie (washing the boat). During the ritual, the witchdoctor, among other things, asks his clients to slaughter a bull, remove the innards, sleep in the carcass naked, then call his friends for a feast the following day. Apparently, the death of the two fishermen is believed to have been meant to appease the evil spirits.

The fisherman’s fortunes changed. His boats now dock with fish worth thousands of shillings.

 Beach Management Unit (BMU) elections is another source of income for waganga as a former BMU leader brought a witchdoctor three days prior to elections. “The witchdoctor came carrying a dead dog which they placed in the BMU office where they conducted some rituals before leaving at around 3am,” someone in the know told The Nairobian, adding that another aspirant brought his mganga who ‘weakened’ the previous rituals performed there besides ‘treating’ money aspirants give potential voters. This was believed to deter voters from electing an opponent.

 “When I took over the office after beating my predecessor in the elections, some people told me that I would not spend more than three months in the office,” said a former BMU leader, adding that he was forced to change the furniture and other items in the office after realising that some charms were planted in the office by his predecessor. “I was forced to go and seek black magic to enable me counter those that were planted by my predecessors.” 

But witchcraft has not been used to curb the rate of HIV infection occasioned by Mageta Island’s boisterous night life: In a radius of only 20 metres, there are about three bars, liquor shops and video halls, complete with music besides backstreet chang’aa joints. Complementing the drinking dens are shops, kiosks and hawkers selling cigarettes, condoms and snacks.

Then there are the dingy single-room lodges with creaking beds and noises that don’t leave much to the imagination. Christine Achieng, 32, clears her throat and tells The Nairobian how she makes Sh3,000 in three days after entertaining two different fishermen.

Indeed, hundreds of fishermen locally known as mapara dock on the shores of Mageta but “only one man among my two clients used a condom,” says Achieng, adding that most of the men here always go to the rooms when they are already drunk and rarely bother to use protection. In one of the lodges, the owner told The Nairobian that it is easy to make between Sh20,000 and Sh40,000 on a good day.

“Our rooms go for Sh300 and most of our customers always come for ‘short time’ while others book a whole night,” he said, adding that clients use the rooms for not more than two hours.

Even though the money is good, the cost of maintaining the rooms is too high due to “breaking of beds almost everyday” and he has thus resorted to building “concrete slab beds which are durable.”

The fight against HIV/Aids here is an uphill task as “residents of Mageta Island are not even bothered to know their HIV status,” says Irene Omollo, a nurse in charge of Mageta Health Centre. She explained that the island is habited by a migratory population, making the control of HIV/Aids an even bigger challenge.

Mary Ochola, a midwife, says sexually transmitted infections are common because many of the residents “fear going to a health facility” and instead always prefer herbal medicine.

Although new HIV infections have marginally reduced to 24 per cent, Siaya County still fall behind the national HIV indicator, at six per cent with wife inheritance and sex-for-fish fuelling new infections.