The Witches of Kisii

In the face of insistence on the part of pursed lipped politicians and dog collared ANC apologists, that the recent anti immigrant violence in South Africa was somehow the fault of the pre-1994 white Apartheid government, which as one prelate stated, "schooled the nation in xenophobia", rather than further evidence of a savage and, deeply tribal, brutality running wild through sub Saharan Africa, I, shall pass on to you the news that at least 11 elderly women have been burnt alive in, Kenya, on account of them being witches.

The women were apparently dragged from their homes by a howling, machete wielding mob doused with petrol and set alight, before their homes were torched in turn.

The mob had won some local support because the victims were accused of making a list of people in the village they were bewitching and then ticking off their names as they died, which presumably was viewed as conclusive proof of guilt.

Villagers said earlier that the mob had killed 15 women.

Provincial police chief Anthony Kibuchi, however, confirmed that only 11 bodies, including those of three men, had been found up until now. "So far we have confirmed 11 suspects were killed and we are still checking through the burnt houses just in case there could be more bodies," he said.

The region, populated mainly by the Kisii tribe, has been dubbed Kenya's "sorcery belt" due to the number of mob attacks on women suspected of witchcraft.

Efforts by the authorities to clamp down on vigilante and mob justice have been unsuccessful.

Several cases have also been reported in recent months in neighbouring Tanzania, forcing President Jakaya Kikwete to order special protection for albinos, who were murdered and mutilated for good luck by witch-doctors.

Presumably the British government and press are confident that those Africans who seem willing to chop up their fellow citizens alive at the drop of a machete, and who believe that setting fire to old ladies and foreigners, and who have such a touchingly "ethnic" belief in sorcery, are far too busy chopping and burning to join the rush to enrich Britain.

I have to confess to a healthy scepticism.