A woman in Fadhili Bucha, Geita, Tanzania, is talk of the town after she was busted red-handed by the graveside of a man who died on December 24, 2015.
According to the deceased’s twin brother Doto Njige, the woman, Mariam Kaijage was caught digging up soil and fetching leaves from vegetation that overlay his kin’s grave.
Doto narrated that Mariam claimed that the fetched material was for medicinal purposes after being advised that they were a remedy for her child’s walking impairment.
A position he shrugged aside as he revealed that his brother, Abel Njige, died mysteriously after a short mental illness.
He expressed his fears saying he is not sure of what the woman’s intentions were and claimed that it could spell doom considering that his family has in recent past been hit by tragedies.
“She could say that they are for medicinal use then it turns out to be the opposite. The dead in this site lay back to back. We remain six. The person who is next in line to die is me,” said Doto.
But according to Mariam, she had asked for permission from a neighbor who had listened to her predicament and directed her to the homestead.
Assured that it would not be an issue, she collected it, and had she not been accosted, would have boiled and used it to massage the feet of her four-year-old daughter.
“It was in broad daylight around 12 pm. By bad or good luck, a child who was in the home spotted me and asked what I had picked. When I told them and showed it to him, he was taken aback.
“I walked home and did not settle for long when a woman came and told me that I had been summoned to explain my actions,” she narrated.
Following the incident, the chair of Waganga wa Tiba Asili Tanzania (CHAWAWATA) urged members of the public to be vigilant against fake herbalists.
