Onayena muti killing claims dismissed

The police at Onayena settlement in the Oshikoto Region have rubbished allegations of ritual killings in the area. This follows claims by community members that several bodies in the area have been discovered without private parts. Onayena station commander Sergeant Nathaniel Haiyaka said in the eight years that he has been stationed at Onayena, the police have never recovered a body without private parts, which may have been removed for the purpose of witchcraft. “We have no record of such allegations and as far as I’m aware, we have never found a body in the water without private parts,” said Haiyaka. Haiyaka’s comments come after community members claimed during a meeting a fortnight ago with Onayena Constituency Councillor Marx Nekongo that over the past decade at least seven people were found dead with their private parts missing. Those who attended the meeting further accused suspected culprits - one of them said to be a taxi driver - of abducting and killing weaker members of the community for their body parts and throwing their bodies in the water. During the meeting, which was also attended by Haiyaka, Nekongo received a letter with a list of people who are allegedly responsible for the killings. Nekongo promised to get to the bottom of the matter. The meeting was called after an unsigned letter - dated April 4 - started doing the rounds, in which residents demanded the immediate removal of certain police officers at the Onayena police station who are allegedly conspiring with those behind the sacrificial killings at Onamulyo location. “We have had several drownings in the area, and while most of the bodies we remove from the water are decomposed, we have never found a body without private parts. This is news to me,” said Haiyaka.