1 THE ROLE OF ABAGUSII RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN VIOLENCE TO WITCH SUSPECTS IN KISII COUNTY KENYA. SIMON GISEGE OMARE, MOI UNIVERSITY, KENYA. P.O. BOX 3900, ELDORET. Omarexg@yahoo.com Abstract The belief in witchcraft is deep-rooted among the Abagusii of Kisii County Nyanza province, Kenya. Abagusii have engaged themselves in violence towards witch suspects as an effort to eradicate the practice of witchcraft. Hostility to witch suspects has led to the killing of several people, others displaced from their homes and destruction of properties hence violating the human rights of the suspects. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, everyone has the right to life, liberty and security. Therefore, no human should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Consequently, the practice of violence towards witch suspects among Abagusii violates the basic rights of witch suspects. As a result, the government of Kenya and the Church have tried to eradicate this practice through arrests and evangelizing respectively but the violence still persists. This paper discusses the role of Abagusii religious practices in such violence, it also discusses the moral and legal foundation of witch suspicion ‘crusades’ among Abagusii, and the impact of this violence on families in Kisii County. The paper hypothesizes that Abagusii religious beliefs and practices contribute to violence to witch suspects in Kisii County. This paper is informed by data from Kisii County-one of the 47 Counties of Kenya- which is the home of Abagusii- one of the forty-two tribes of Kenya. Data was collected through interviews and group discussions conducted with informants who were selected purposefully. 1.1 Introduction The belief and practice of witchcraft is prevalent among Abagusii of Nyanza province, Kenya (Masese, E. 2006: 317-333). The Abagusii are inhabitants of the Kisii, Gucha and Nyamira Counties of Kenya (Ogendo, et al, 1988). The belief in witchcraft is so strong that almost all negative daily misfortunes like barrenness, death, sickness and poverty are explained in terms of witchcraft (Masese, E. 2006). According to the Abagusii, a witch is a person with an incorrigible, conscious tendency to kill or disable others by magical means (Levine, A. R. 1963). In spite of embracing Christianity and the modern lifestyle, majority of Abagusii believe in witchcraft. Abagusii have made various efforts to curb the practice of witchcraft in their society and the most notable effort has been the use of violence against witch suspects. Violence on witch suspects among Abagusii has become "a national scourge (Omanga, 2011)." The Help Age International records that an average of six people were killed every month for allegedly practicing witchcraft (Demos, J. 2009). The majority of the lynched witch suspects were women (Gehman, J.R. 2000: 104). Several cases illustrate the enormity of violence against suspected witches among Abagusii. For example, a trader suspected to be